YALE UNIVERSITY
LIBRARY

THE LIBRARY OF THE
DIVINITY SCHOOL

THE CENTRAL TEACHING
or
JESUS CHRIST

jgxm

THE CENTRAL TEACHING

JESUS CHRIST

A STUDY AND EXPOSITION
OF THE FIVE CHAPTERS OF THE GOSPEL ACCORDING
TO ST. JOHN, XIII. TO XVII. INCLUSIVE

BT
THOMAS DEHANY BERNAKD, M.A.
Canon and Chancellor or "Wells
Author of " The Progress of Doctrine in the New Testament '
Bampton Lectures, 1864

WeiB gork
MACMILLAN AND CO.
AND LONDON
1892
All rights reserved

Copyright, 1892,
Bt MACMILLAN AND CO.

Typography by J. S. Cushing & Co., Boston, U.S.A.
Presswork by Berwick & Smith, Boston, U.S.A*

PKEFACE
This book had its origin in some lectures deliv
ered under a Diocesan scheme of " Higher Relig
ious Education." Having afterwards undertaken
to put in a readable shape the lines for the study
of this part of Holy Scripture which had been then
suggested, I soon found myself enlarging upon
those notes, and exceeding the brief treatment
proposed. In the holy atmosphere of that record,
in presence of the solemn crisis to which it belongs,
of the touching incidents, the wide range of dis
course, and the deep significance of its words, a
more anxious study and a more deliberate exposition
were naturally created. Thus a fuller treatment
became inevitable, as attention was more closely
given to the divisions and connections of discourse,
to the distinctions and relations of topics, to the
twofold character of words addressed to hearers at
the moment, and consigned to the Church forever,
and especially to the central place of this teaching
in the whole doctrine of Christ, and consequently
to the transitional office which it fulfils in the

PREFACE

development of the scheme of the Gospel. Thus
it was that the notes of lectures became a book.
I was the more inclined to prosecute this work
for two reasons, one literary and the other per
sonal. In ranging through the literature of the subject,
I did not find that there is any book which does
precisely what is here intended. Certainly a
student has abundant aids, both exegetical and
homiletical. In the multitude of Commentaries on
the Fourth Gospel this section has its place ; and
its texts and topics have been treated in countless
sermons, lectures, and meditations. But I doubt
whether there is any one book which at once covers
the ground and is conterminous with it ; one that
treats it as a whole in itself, in the way both of
interpretation and reflection. If there be no such
book, it is fit that there should be one, and of a
kind suited for reading rather than for reference.
Under this impression I applied myself more
willingly to a task which did not appear to be
superfluous. At the same time it was in my own mind the
return to an idea which had occurred a quarter of
a century before. In preparing the Bampton Lect
ures for 1864, on "The Progress of Doctrine in
the New Testament," my thoughts were occupied
with the advancing revelation of Christ, as it lies
before us developed in the canonical books; and

PREFACE

no part of that scheme impressed me so deeply as
did the office of those five chapters of St. John,
which close the teaching of Christ in the flesh and
introduce the teaching of Christ in the Spirit.
After completing such review of the whole sub
ject (alas ! under very disabling conditions, and
with sadly imperfect effect !) my thoughts reverted
to that central stage of advance more frequently
than to any other. But the further treatment of
such a subject required leisure which was not to
be had. One who, in a great pastoral charge, is
engaged without cessation as preacher and teacher,
in the practical ministry of the Word, must be
deeply thankful for that kind of study of it which
daily occasions demand ; yet he may often glance
wistfully at paths of inquiry which he would have
followed, had the duty of the hour permitted, or
pass on by fields of thought, in which he feels he
could have expatiated with pleasure, or imagines
that he could have reaped with advantage. If such
liberty comes at last, it is often under bodily or
mental conditions which ask only for repose. But
if it be not so, a less exacting public ministry may
give opportunity, not only for a more tranquil study
of the Word, but for some contribution to the
Church of the kind which is here attempted. Per
haps it would not be attempted, but for the meas
ure of encouragement derived from readers of the
former work, to which reference has been made.

PREFACE

It is a satisfaction to me to express my gratitude
for intimations of interest and fellowship of thought
on the part of readers whom I have never seen,
both at home, and still more frequently on the
other side of the Atlantic. Therefore I commend
these words to my brothers and sisters in Christ,
in England and America, with the hope that they
may, in some cases, assist a thoughtful entrance
into this inner sanctuary of the Written Word,
which has been justly called " The Holiest of All."
There, not only the writer but the readers, must
study the words of the Lord Jesus, as feeling them
selves in his very presence, and depending on the
Spirit of truth, who, it is here promised, shall
" teach you all things " and " guide you into all
the truth."

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION
CHAP. I. Central Teaching
II. A Study and Exposition

PAGE 1

15

Part I
THE INCIDENTS
XIII
I. The Preamble
II. At Supper ....
III. The Washing op the Feet
IV. The Detachment of Judas
V. The Preliminary Sayings .
VI. The Premonition to Peter

3142 597488
100

Part II
THE DISCOURSES
FIRST DISCOURSE xiv
I. Method and Character  113
II. The Foundation Word  123
III. The Final Prospect  129
ix

IV. Self-Revelation
V. The Promise of Power .
VI. The Promise op the Paraclete
VII. The Promise of Teaching
VIII. The Benediction op Peace
IX. The Accepted End .
X. A Dividing Line

139
152157174
184190
198

XI. Life and Fruitfulness .
XII. Love and Friendship
XIII. Enmity of the World
XIV. Witness to the World .
XV. Treatment by the World
XVI. Conviction of the World
XVII. Illumination op the Church
XVIII. The Sorrow and the Joy
XIX. The Intercourse op the Future
XX. The Last Words

209228240
252258269
283294303319

I. Scope and Order
II. For His Work and Glory
III. For the Disciples .
IV. For All Believers .
V. The Sequel

331340
359385
407

INTRODUCTION

INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I
I have entitled this book " The Central Teach
ing of Christ," and have described it as " a study
and exposition." This title and description, when
explained and justified, will place the reader at the
point of view from which this divine teaching is
to be here considered.
The title implies that we have before us a sec
tion of this teaching, which may be taken as dis
tinct from the rest and complete in itself, and also
as one which has, in relation to the whole scheme,
a central position and office.
The five chapters of this Gospel, thirteenth to
seventeenth inclusive, are marked off as a distinct
section of the book, first, by their historical setting,
and then by their special character. They are the
record of a definite stage in the communication of
the Gospel, and constitute (so to speak)' a compart
ment in the whole scheme of the Written Word.
In the narrative of the Evangelist, the twelfth
chapter closes the manifestation of Christ to his
nation, with notes of final warning and tones of sad
b 1

INTRODUCTION

farewell. The story of those days, told in the other
Gospels, is not repeated here. Only the public
entrance into the city is mentioned, with two
characteristic touches of reflection ; one on the ful
filment of prophecy, not perceived till " Jesus was
glorified," the other on the connection of the brief
outburst of popular feeling with the recent miracle
at Bethany, related in the previous chapter. There
the writer passes at once to an incident which he
represents as final. Before the Lord quits the
Temple forever, a voice comes from beyond the
confines of Israel, a- voice of Greeks — " We would
see Jesus." " The hour is come," He answers,
" that the Son of Man should be glorified." The
multitudes of mankind rise before his mind, and
at the same time the anguish and the death which
must be the conditions of their salvation. There
is a conflict, anticipating Gethsemane. There is a
voice from heaverl. There is a revealing word
which interprets the crisis. "Now is the judg
ment of this world : now shall the prince of this
world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up out of
the earth, will draw all men unto myself." Some
questions of cavil or perplexity are answered by a
solemn warning to use such opportunity as may
yet be given. "Walk while ye have the light,
that darkness overtake you not. . . . While ye
have the light believe in the light, that ye may
become sons of light." So ends the ministry to

INTRODUCTION

Israel. " He departed and hid Himself from
them"; to be seen no more in public, save as led
out to die. The Evangelist now reviews that mis
sion as finished, and sums up the result. " Though
He had done so many signs before them, yet they
believed not on Him." But so it had been pre
dicted. Two passages are cited from Isaiah, who
"saw his glory and spake of Him." In one of
those passages the Prophet had asked, " Lord, how
long ? " and been told that the unbelief would last
till desolation came. The desolation had come when
the Evangelist wrote. Yet it had not been all un
belief, even where it seemed to be so. " Among
the chief rulers many believed ; but did not con
fess it, lest they should be put out of the syna
gogue, because they loved the glory of men more
than the glory of God." So it was, despite the
solemn witness of Jesus, that belief or unbelief in
Him and in his words, was belief or unbelief in
God and in words of God. This assertion by the
Lord Himself is the seal which the Evangelist
affixes to his account of the mission and its results.
That story is finished : and the narrative at the
beginning of the thirteenth chapter takes a new
departure, retiring within the little company of
the twelve. There are spoken the words con
tained in these five chapters ; and the close of this
division is as clearly marked as its beginning.
" When Jesus had spoken these words He went

INTRODUCTION

forth with his disciples over the brook Kidron,
where was a garden into which He entered," and
there the Passion is begun.
It is therefore a separate portion of our Lord's
ministry on which we enter here ; and its impor
tance is evident from the space which it occupies,
being little less than a fourth of the entire Gospel.
The twelve previous chapters cover a period of
nearly three years; these five are records of a
single evening. In those we range through Judea,
Samaria, Galilee ; we are in the wilderness, on the
sea-board, in streets and synagogues, and most
often in the Temple itself. In these we remain' in
a single chamber of a private house. In those we
are in the presence of " the Jews," the multitudes,
all classes of disciples, hearers, observers, oppo
nents. In these we are in the inner circle which
may be called the Lord's own family. It is plain
that what passes here must have an importance all
its own.
It has this value from these very restrictions,
which constitute its special character, as a min
istry to believers. The Gospel is written on a
distinct plan, that of giving, at the same time, an
account of the manifestation of Christ, and an
account of the reception of it by those to whom
it was presented. St. John traces with evident
intention the advancing faith of the few and the
hardening of the many in unbelief. He traces

INTRODUCTION

these processes not only by relating the facts, but
by his own observations upon them, such as never
occur in the synoptic gospels. The discussions
and objections of the people and the growing
antagonism of the representative classes are exhib
ited in their progress towards the national rejec
tion, in the story, which has been summed up with
melancholy comments at the end of the twelfth
chapter. Side by side with this history of un
belief runs the history of faith, in those who
" received Him," telling how they acted on the
testimony of the Baptist; how they felt at once
that "they had found the Messias"; how, at the
first miracle, " His disciples believed on Him " ;
how, when others " went back," their adhesion
was confirmed (ch. vi. 66-68); how they shared
in the impressions of the public ministry and re
ceived deeper impressions themselves in more inti
mate converse; how their faith was tried by a
course which contradicted their expectations, and
by a seeming impotence against the powers of the
world; but how it was also sustained by works
which they saw to be the testimony of God ; how
their faith felt the strain of claims which tran
scended their capacity of apprehension, and of words
which they knew not how to interpret; but how
this was more than balanced by the experimental
conviction, "Thou hast words of eternal life."
Thus through those years of association, with all

INTRODUCTION

their recorded ignorances, weaknesses, and mis
takes, they yet beheld his glory, the glory as of
an " only begotten from the Father," with a con
sciousness only afterwards to be fully understood.
And now this hearing and beholding, this educa
tion and companionship, must end. The next
three days will bring, in the Crucifixion the
final shock to their faith, and, in the Resurrec
tion the final seal ; to be followed by the transition,
gradual at first and soon complete, to the life of
walking by faith and not by sight. Thus a great
work remains for the last evening. A teaching
must be given which shall recognise the pi^nlS
faith and raise it to a higher level, whigh shall he
a consummation of the relation^-ih the past and. a
preparation for those in the future. It cannot but
be given under the genuine emotion of the hour,
inspired by the full consciousness of tjae situation,
the sympathy which naturally grows more com
passionate, and the love which allows itself more
tender expression in the moments of a great fare
well. Such is the teachiug which we prepare to attend,
when we approach this division of the Written
Word, five chapters, which have been called "a
Gospel within the Gospel," a sacred enclosure, an in
terior sanctuary, where the Lord is alone with his
friends; the manifestation to the world finished-
the redemption of the world to follow. We enter

INTRODUCTION

under a cloud of divine sadness ; we find ourselves
under the brightest illuminations of truth and
love. Instructions, consolations, promises, revela
tions, form the legacy which the departing Saviour
leaves to his Church.
The section of the Gospel thus marked off by
its historical setting and by the nature of its con
tents, holds not only a distinct but a central place
in the teaching of Christ. It has this central
character, first, as intervening between the narra
tive of the manifestation of Christ to the world,
and that of his passion and resurrection ; secondly,
as closing the teaching of Christ in the flesh and
foreshowing his teaching in the Spirit.
Historically the central chapter of the Gospel of
Christ is the narrative of his death and resurrec
tion. These events consummate his manifestation
on earth, and condition his mediation in heaven.
" The death which He died, He died unto sin once ;
the life which He liveth, He liveth unto God."
In the one act He departed out of this world, hav
ing finished the work which was given Him to do ;
in the other He went to the Father to open the
kingdom of heaven to all believers. Therefore, in
the region of fact these events have the central
place, as closing one part of the dispensation and
opening the other ; and to these events the teach
ing of the last hours is united in the most signifi
cant manner. It is prefaced as being given " when

INTRODUCTION

Jesus knew that his hour was come, that He should
depart out of this world unto the Father"; and
" when He had spoken these words He went forth "
to Gethsemane, the cross and grave. We listen
under the consciousness of what is to follow, a
consciousness all the deeper because the situation
is not explained but understood.
The instructions, which are thus made prelimi
nary to the central facts of the Gospel, have also
a central place in the course of education of the
disciples, in respect both of the method of the
Teacher and the attainments of the taught.
It is the close of teaching given in the flesh by
word of mouth, on the old terms of fellowship;
and it gives large promise of another kind of teach
ing to be carried on by the Spirit, leading into all the
truth, and communicating "many things" which
the Teacher had to say, but which the disciples
" could not bear " then. The character of the in
structions corresponds with this stage of transition,
as preparing the faith and experience of a spiritual
life different from that of the past, but on the verge
of which the hearers stood.
In regard to the attainments of the disciples we
receive a like impression of transition. We see
the reality of their faith, but we also see its limits.
One after another they betray those limits by their
questions. They ought to have advanced farther,
but they have reached a level of faith which is

INTRODUCTION

treated as a sufficient basis for more decisive ad
vance ; and " in that day " which is to follow, this
faith will open out into fuller knowledge. Their
personal position, however, will be better con
sidered when we come to enter on the discourses.
Here we only note the place which this part of
the word of Christ holds relatively to the rest of it.
If any one were to place on the one side the
Sermon on the Mount and the general synoptic
teaching, and on the other the Apostolic Epistles,
expressing the Christian consciousness there at
tained, he would very doubtfully trace the conti
nuity of ideas by which the great change has been
effected. The Fourth Gospel supplies that line of
the teaching of Christ which conducts from the one
point to the other; and it is the present section of
that Gospel which does this in the most direct
manner. It makes the whole teaching continuous,
by telling how Jesus Himself, at the end of his
manifestation, assumed the results of past instruc
tions, in order to interweave with them the doctrine
of the future. Without these chapters the apostolic
conceptions and convictions would lose much of
the precious securities given by words which fell
from the Master's lips. With these chapters, we
hear in those later writings the echoes of his own
words, and find the doctrine of " that day " to be
only what He said it should be.
One great exception may, however, be taken to

10 INTRODUCTION chap.
this statement, and that in respect of a doctrine
which lies at the heart of Christianity as taught in
the canonical Epistles and held in the Catholic
Church; I mean that of the atoning merit and
redeeming virtue of the death of Christ. That
doctrine is not here. The ideas of sacrifice and
propitiation, ransom and redemption do not appear
in this teaching, and even the facts of death and
resurrection are only implied under veiled expres
sions. Elsewhere there are plain predictions of
" the Son of Man delivered to be crucified," and
" the Son of Man risen again from the dead," and
also distinct intimations of his " giving his life a
ransom for many," and of his " blood shed for the
remission of sins." No such words are found in
these discourses, spoken on the very threshold of
the events. The view of the speaker is projected
beyond them into a life for Himself and a dispen
sation for his people, of which his death and
resurrection are necessary conditions, but condi
tions which are not here affirmed. The events
immediately at hand would speak for themselves ;
the interpretation of them would follow by the
teaching of the Spirit. Had these impending
events and the deep meaning of them been pre
sented in these discourses, they would have been
presented to minds incapable as yet of appre
hending them, and certainly incapable of passing
beyond them into the serener atmosphere of the

INTRODUCTION 11

life in the Spirit, and the region of hope and faith
into which they were to be led. In fact, the
teaching of this night could not have been given
as it was.1
As actually given it deposited in the minds of
the disciples, and so in the mind of the Church,
ideas most precious and most fruitful, constituting
both a large proportion and a distinguishing char
acter of the Christian habit of thought, as we
know it in the apostolic letters.
The first principle, " Ye believe in God, believe
also in Me," there expands itself into the pervad
ing undivided faith " in God the Father and Jesus
Christ our Lord." The relations of the Holy
1 I may be allowed, in passing, to observe that we have in
the absence of these doctrines one evidence of the accuracy of
the report, for it is given by one whose mind was strongly and
habitually possessed with the very ideas which are absent here.
Not to speak of the testimonies in his Gospel, from the first
word which drew him to Christ, "Behold the Lamb of God
which taketh away the sin of the world," to the last deep im
pression from the sight of the blood and water from the pierced
side, we see how he places in the forefront of his Epistle "the
blood of Jesus Christ which cleanses from all sin, " and the ' ' pro
pitiation for the sins of the whole world," and in the forefront
of his apocalypse, glory to Him "who loosed (or washed) us
from our sins in his blood," with many a subsequent cele
bration of " Him who was slain and purchased us to God by
his blood," and of victory obtained "by the blood of the
Lamb." The absence of truths which held such a place in the
mind of the writer is adverse to speculations with which we are
now familiar on modification of the discourses by "unconscious
introduction of his own ideas," or " filtering of the products of
his individuality" into the reports of the Lord's words.

12 INTRODUCTION

Ghost with the Father and the Son, and his liv
ing presence (which is their presence also) in the
Church and in the soul appears in those pages as we
first find them here. Whatsoever we there read of
God in Christ and Christ in God, whatsoever of union
with Christ and membership in Him, and access to
the Father through Him, of worship in his name, of
gifts and powers bestowed by Him, of participation
in his peace and association in his victory over the
world, whatsoever doctrine, whatsoever experience
on these subjects we derive from those Epistles, has
its origin and its certificate in the discourses of the
last evening. To exhibit this correspondence be
tween the condensed sayings here, and their ex
panded consequences there, would be a treatise in
itself; but any one who pursues the comparison will
see with increasing clearness that this Christian
consciousness in all its parts had its origin in the
sayings of Jesus, and most distinctly in these.
It is true that this consciousness is best known
to us from the writings of one who was not pres
ent in the upper room; but in this respect the
utterances of St. Paul are at one with those of St.
Peter and St. John. St. Paul had, as he tells us,
his own separate revelations, but the fundamental
Christian consciousness, of which I speak, however
characterized in the individual, was the common
heritage of believers. It might find an eminently
sympathetic interpreter in St. Paul; but he was

INTRODUCTION 13

neither the originator nor the peculiar possessor
of it. He found it in the community which he
entered, breathing in the atmosphere of the Church.
We are not to identify a thing with the extant
records of it, as if it existed only in them. For
instance, these sayings of Jesus, as we have them,
were written down by one Apostle long after they
were uttered. He, no doubt, was always the best
reporter of them, and was therefore chosen as their
reporter forever. But were they heard only by
him ? Ten other men were listening, men chosen
for the purpose, commissioned witnesses, an apos
tolic college. And why a college? That the
members might assist and check each other's mem
ory, and sustain each other's testimony; and that
thus there might be a solidarity of witness and
authority on the foundations of the Gospel while
that should be needed. If any words of Jesus
sank into their hearts, and by them passed into
the hearts of others, surely it must have been so
with these words, delivered as a last legacy, con
fided to them as chosen Apostles, and gradually
verified by experience in the day of the dispensa
tion of the Spirit. I mean to point out that there
was a world of Christian consciousness correspond
ing to these predictive instructions, before St. Paul,
twenty years later, assumed its existence in those to
whom he wrote, and before St. John, fifty years later,
bequeathed to the Church in writing his own habit-

14 INTRODUCTION

ual testimony. That later development of faith
and experience was as really the teaching of Christ
by the Spirit as were the instructions spoken with
his lips on the hills of Galilee or in the synagogue
of Capernaum ; and between the two stand the tran
sitional words of the last evening, which on that
account are here designated as " the central teach
ing of Jesus Christ."

INTRODUCTION 15

CHAPTER II
A STUDY AND EXPOSITION
In describing this work as a study and exposi
tion, I intend to distinguish its character from that
of an inquiry and discussion. The two descrip
tions involve different attitudes of mind in relation
to the text which is treated. In the former we
are considering it as it is ; in the latter, how it
came to be what it is. In this case we have before
us questions of preliminary importance, on the
authorship of the Gospel, and, if that be granted,
on its accuracy as a report. These and the like
inquiries concerning the canonical Scriptures may
be said to be the questions of the time, having
been raised with eager importunity and treated
on both sides with elaboration, erudition, and
ingenuity in the last and the present generation.
There is the more reason to bear in mind that
those questions are preliminary, and to be kept
in their own place, not following us with disturb
ing influence into the inner sanctuary of instruc
tion. It would fare ill with the school of Christ,

16 INTRODUCTION

if attention to the teaching were embarrassed by
uncertainties as to who was really the teacher;
and if the disciples could no longer listen with
the old trustful security that they were "hear
ing Him and being taught by Him as is truth in
Jesus." In the present case, one who has gone
into these questions, with the result of an entire
satisfaction, can the more thankfully set them
aside, and follow the divine teaching with the per
fect confidence with which it has been ever studied
and expounded in the Catholic Church. A settled
assurance as to the writer of the Gospel carries
with it an equal assurance of his distinct com
mission and peculiar competence to write, and of
the special grace enabling him for the work which
he fulfils in the testimony of Jesus to the Church
and to the world forever. Such confidence is not
in the least incompatible with the consciousness of
the conditions under which the divine purpose was
fulfilled. These conditions, in some most impor
tant respects, cannot be better expressed than in
the following words : —
" The key to the Fourth Gospel lies in translation. . . .
I mean translation in language from Aramaic into Greek :
translation in time extending over more than half a century,
the writer passing from young manhood to mature old
age : translation in place from Palestine to Ephesus : transla
tion in outward moulds of thought from the simplicity of
Jewish fishermen and peasants to the technicalities of a
people, who had formed for a century the meeting-ground,

INTRODUCTION 17

and, in part, the union of the philosophers of East and
West. " If we earnestly attempt to realise the life of the Apostle,
and the circumstances under which the Gospel was com
posed, it will lead us to understand how this process of
development must have taken place in the inspired writer,
and how absolutely essential it was to the purpose of his
writing." *
Certainly these several kinds of translation give
ample scope for suppositions of such changes by
the way as would create variations between the
facts and the records of them, between the dis
courses and the reports of them. Hence the
luminous pages might be darkened by flitting
shadows of uncertainty, study might be distracted
by questions, and exposition arrested by discus
sion. So it is in that stage of enquiry, in which
Holy Scripture is being examined " like any other
book." But if that very enquiry lead to the con
clusion that it is not like any other book in char
acter, origin, and relation to mankind, that there
pervades its component parts another mind than
the minds of its many authors, and that the
Church has been right in recognising it as the
Written Word of God, then those shadows pass
from its pages and those distractions cease. Nor
is there any part of Holy Scripture in which
this assurance is more instinctively and justly
1 Archdeacon Watkins, Bampton Lectures, 1890, "Modern
Criticism and the Fourth Gospel," p. 426-427.

18 INTRODUCTION

felt than it is in these chapters, where the be
loved disciple tells how, in his own hearing, Jesus
spake. In the last sentence of the passage quoted there
occur two expressions which, if worthily under
stood, contain the secret of confidence for the
student and expositor. These are "the inspired
writer" and "the purpose of his writing." If
his inspiration was a reality, and the purpose of
his writing was the purpose of his Lord, then
speculations about changes and developments are
greatly restricted. If He who was the Incarnate
Word and Saviour of the world would be known
to his Church for ever, He would know how to
secure the truth of that information, and to make
it the very expression of Himself; and here He has
employed for this purpose the agent nearest to
Him, whose spirit was, beyond that of other men,
receptive and retentive and open to that guidance
of the Spirit, the promise of which he has recorded.
Suppositions about psychological processes and
influences of circumstances cannot in this case
be equally admissible as they might be in ordinary
literature and the common history of mind. If
translation is one key to this Gospel, inspiration is
another, as the presiding power which ordered the
translation, and shaped its effects to the divine
purpose of a perfect testimony. If the Spirit acted
in directing the movements of the Gospel, how

INTRODUCTION 19

much more needful would that direction be in the
perpetuation of it. We read in Acts xvi. how
this guidance led the Gospel into Greece. The
preachers, "forbidden by the Holy Ghost to
preach the Word in Asia," turned to Bithynia,
" but the Spirit suffered them not " ; then a vision
directed them across the sea. It would be scarce
reasonable to believe that no like guidance was
given in the formation of documents on which the
faith of Christians would depend to the end of
time. Surely it was the same superintendence
.which led the preaching into Greece as the best
post of advantage, and which fixed the writing in
Greek as the most perfect vehicle of expression.
In respect, then, of translation in language we
are scarcely a step removed from the Lord. What
is language but the vehicle of mind ? and we hear
Him speaking in the upper room in that language
in which He has provided that we should read
most perfectly His mind and meaning. For ex
ample, if we note in the discourses shades and
discriminations of meaning, which the Greek lan
guage supplies, we shall not have to enquire as to
Aramaic equivalents in the original communica
tions, having before us a version which is, by the
Lord's will and provision, the version for the
world, given as the word of Christ for ever.1
1 E.g. such enquiry might be suggested by the frequent ob
servations we shall have to make on words carrying important

20 INTRODUCTION

The same principle of divine guidance applies
to other instances of translation, as from early to
later life, from Jerusalem to Ephesus, from one
mental atmosphere to another. There are pas
sages in the Gospel in which the effect of such
translations may be observed, and felt to assist
interpretation ; but scarcely in passages which are
simple testimony, least of all such testimony as is
given here, and which must have been felt as a
specially sacred deposit to be guarded and trans
mitted with the most reverential care. Specula
tions on the effects of psychological changes in the
writer, on free handling of his materials, and on
alterations, even unconsciously made, in the words
which he reports, should here be under restraint.
This is not a case of ordinary literature ; not that
of an old man recovering distant recollections ; or
of an author who has the right to exhibit his sub
ject according to his later lights. It is the case of
the chosen Apostle reporting the words of the Son
discriminations of idea in the Greek, which have no adequate
equivalents in our own language, which has but one word in
common use to represent two which the more perfect language
would employ. E.g. know for oiSa, yivdxrKu; go for iw&ya,
iropeiu ; see for opdu, Beaptw ; love for dyairiw, tf>i\4w ; true for
a\ri$ 7}s, d\7;9i>_s ; now for vvv, _/>. i ; from for irapi, d_-6, etc., etc.
But the enquiry which our own experience of translation might
suggest as to equivalents in Greek and Aramaic becomes of no
practical consequence, if by the will of the Divine Speaker his
communications are given us by the finer instrument which
conveys to our minds all their meaning and force.

INTRODUCTION 21

of God, writing as a witness of things committed
to his trust, and which through life he had been
used to testify. " This is the disciple which
beareth witness of these things (o fiaprvpcov irepl
tovtwv), expressing a recognised habit, and wrote
these things (/.at <ypd-tya<; ravra), and we know
that his testimony is true" (xxi. 24). In pres
ence of these conditions and also of the promise of
Christ, " He shall bring all things to your remem
brance, whatsoever I have said unto you," it
surely requires overwhelming reasons to justify
those suppositions of changes, developments, modi
fications by subjective tendencies, mixing together
portions of other discourses, and the like, in which
even reverential writers have been prone to in
dulge, after breathing a literary atmosphere
infected with critical distrust.1
1 An instance may be fitly taken from a thoughtful book
which has done good service, "The Authorship and Historical
Character of the Fourth Gospel," by Dr. Sanday. The able
writer, after mentioning an argument which he says "has not
any great weight," continues thus: "Yet we should be led in
some degree to infer from this that the Evangelist had enlarged
upon his original. And the whole character of the discourse
goes to strengthen this conclusion. They have been freely
reproduced ; probably portions of other discourses, though all
belonging to these last days worked up in them." Then after
describing a possible process of mind, he continues, "Some
such process seems to have been at work in the mind of the
Apostle. And not only has he mixed together portions of dif
ferent discourses, but he has also shaped, moulded, developed,
their substance in such a way that we are no more able to draw
the line at the point where the old ends and where the

22 INTRODUCTION

The discussion of these questions, important in
the highest degree, is yet outside the intention of
this book. Here we would study St. John, not as
critics, but as disciples. His words will be taken
for what they profess to be ; and if he " repeats
discourses under an impression that they represent
what was actually spoken," we shall read them
here under the same impression. Such study,
however, in keeping to its own lines, has also a
necessary bearing on the questions which it avoids,
and makes a material contribution to the argu
ment. For if deliberate consideration shews more
plainly that the story suits the persons as they
were at the time, and fits in with the facts and
feelings of the occasion ; if the lifelike touches in
the scene appear to be natural tokens of unclouded
personal recollection ; if revealing words, laid sep
arately before us (in the manner technically called
new begins." It is conceded that this was done "uncon
sciously," and that "the discourses are repeated under an
impression that they represent what was actually spoken. But
it is impossible for an active mind to retain the exact recollec
tion of words over a space of perhaps fifty years. Little by
little the products of its own individuality will filter in and dis
turb the clear element of objective fact " (p. 222). Then follows
a psychological speculation on the effect of time on the memory
in case of a man of strong mind and character. But such
resources of suspicious criticism, however allowable in respect
of ordinary literary reproduction, are scarcely tolerable here,
where the effects on confidence are so serious, and where the
very slender suggestions of suspicion are met by an immense
preponderance of reasons for trust.

INTRODUCTION 23

asyndeton) without particles of connexion or
incorporation, are suggestive of the form in which
they lay undisturbed in the memory of the writer ;
if in the discourses a certain " involved manner "
gives the impression of converse as it was, not of
later reflection reducing it into shape ; and if these
communications are characterised by a simplicity
of language which is not after any school of
thought, and by a depth of meaning and a con
scious authority which are not after the manner of
men, — then these features of the record constitute
an internal evidence of truth and accuracy, which,
so to speak, converts the reader of the Evangelist
into a hearer of the Lord.
Having thus endeavoured to relieve this study
from the pressure of questions which are not
within its scope, I would indicate by anticipation
certain leading ideas which will be observed in the
course of it, but will be more present to the mind
if mentioned beforehand.
The first is that of the internal unity of this
whole section of the Gospel. It presents one course
of things in three parts ; the Incidents preparing for
the Discourses, the Discourses consummated by the
Prayer. The Apostolic College having been first
cleansed by a symbolic washing, and then purged
of an alien element, receives its great legacy of
teaching and promise, and is finally committed to
the care and blessing of the Father, in respect of

24 INTRODUCTION

the men themselves, of their common work, and
of the effects of it in all generations. It is all
one course of fact and thought, complete within
itself, — a comprehensive and consummate fare
well. Another leading idea to be kept in mind is that
of combination. There is a twofold character
throughout, combining all the naturalness of the
historical situation with all the greatness of its
spiritual significance. In the one point of view,
we see the holy Teacher before his death having
the last meal with his disciples, speaking the last
words in tones of genuine human affection, and
leaving with them consolations and instructions to
be pondered when He is gone. In the other point
of view we behold the Son who came forth from
the Father about to return to the Father, deliver
ing to the chosen founders and representatives of
his Church revelations of truth, which are to pro
long their power through all generations of be
lievers. Thus is there a twofold character, first
of the speaker, then of the hearers, then also of
the words, both aspects being preserved in the
narrative in perfect combinations ; and both must,
in like manner, be kept in view in the study and
exposition of it.
A third leading idea is that of the relation
in which this part of the divine teaching stands
to the whole, as occupying the central position. It

INTRODUCTION 25

intervenes between, two stages in the building up
of the Gospel, and spans what would else be a
vacant space in the doctrinal structure ; being not
merely beautiful as the capital of a column, but
necessary as the solid keystone of an arch. But
this idea, having given the title to the book, has
been sufficiently set forth in the chapter which
explained the title. On the method and spirit
of the treatment attempted a few words may be
added. 1. The method is to follow the course of Scrip
ture as it is, without seeking a more formal order
by analysis, or by rearrangement according to topics,
as, for instance, by throwing together the words on
the gift of the Spirit, or those on love or on wor
ship. It is a simple method, but it is that of a
true and trustful exposition, as shewing that if the
same topics recur, they recur in different connex
ions and with different applications, and that we
are not passing through a confusion, but following
an evolution of thought.
2. On this plan a chief help to exposition must
be sought in the naturalness and fitness of divis
ions, as far as this can be attained; since this
arrests deliberate attention on the successive steps
of instruction, making each a study by itself, yet
in its connexion, often unexpressed, with what
precedes and follows.
3. Within these divisions the force of the ex-

26 INTRODUCTION

pressions and the precision of the wording claim
the careful observation which they have received
from all commentators; and they claim it, not
only on the grounds of conscientious exegesis in
general, but specially from the obligations felt by
those who regard the human words as uttering
divine thoughts.
The spirit proper to such a study must be one
of sympathetic observation and also of reverential
faith. For the just apprehension of all that passes there
is need of something more than exact observation
of particulars ; there is need of a certain sympathy
with the feeling of the occasion, with the mind of
the disciples, and (shall we venture to say it?)
with the mind of the Lord. We may say it, for
plainly He desired the poor sympathy of the men
who "continued with Him in his temptations,"
and whom He asked to "watch with Him one
hour " ; and the tones of human experiences and
human affections, audible in these farewell words,
assist our apprehensions by touching our hearts.
But beyond this power of realising the circum
stances and feelings of the scene, another condition
of mind is needed for the true interpretation of its
teaching; namely, a reverential sense that we are
present at an important part of the manifestation
of the Son of God, and of the self-revelation of the
Lord to his Church. This involves a deeper in-

INTRODUCTION 27

sight into the significance of acts, and a larger
apprehension of the import of words. It creates also
a right and duty of inferences and applications
extending through all time, and proper to our day
and ourselves. Fresh and living do these words
come down to us, as spoken with prospective in
tention, and transmitted by inspiration and provi
dence. In connecting them with later experiences
and with present uses, we are only treating them
according to their proper nature and purpose.
The voice that speaks so far away in an upper
room in Jerusalem is heard, as by an electric cur
rent, speaking close beside us ; and we feel that by
his Word as well as in his Spirit, He fulfils the
promise, " Lo ! I am with you all the days even to
the consummation of the age."

Part I

THE INCIDENTS

XIII. 1-38

CHAPTER I. The Preamble 

. 1

II.

2

III.

Washing of the Feet . .

2-17

IV.

Detachment of Judas

. 18-30

V.

Preliminary Sayings . . . .

. 31-35

VI.

Premonition to Peter . ...

. 36-38

29

Part I
THE INCIDENTS
CHAPTER I
THE PREAMBLE
"Now before the feast of the Passover, Jesus, knowing that his
hour was eome that he should depart out of this world unto
the Father, having loved his own which were in the world,
he loved them unto the end."
" This verse," says Bengel, " is a general exor
dium extending to all that is related in this and
the following chapters." So most commentators
take it, and such it obviously is. Such preambles
are in the manner of St. John. There are several
minor instances. The greatest is the prologue to
the Gospel itself. In the present case three par
ticulars are premised. (1) The date, (2) the
consciousness of Jesus, and (3) the motive and
character of his action.
1. The date ("before the feast of the Pass
over ") gives to what follows its place in history.
It does not positively determine the question of
the day, but places these hours at the commence-
31

32 THE INCIDENTS

ment of the feast, — the word then in use, not
only for the paschal supper, but for the whole
festival week which it inaugurated. At this feast,
commemorative of a typical redemption, the real
redemption was wrought. This was apparently
the third Passover in the public life of Jesus. At
the first (ii. 13, 23) He claimed his rights as the
Son in his Father's house, and "wrought many
signs," with the result that "many believed."
If the un-named feast (v. 1) were a Passover, that
would add another to the list, and another year to
the ministry ; but the reasons on the opposite side
are almost conclusive. The second, therefore,
would be that which He did not attend (vi. 4),
when it is mentioned as exceptional that "He
walked in Galilee, and did not walk in Judea,
because the Jews sought to kill Him" (vii. 1).
Now, on this third occasion, the time for deferring
that termination is over, and He is in Jerusalem,
at the feast, to be Himself the fulfilment of its
types, in its first portion as " our Passover sacri
ficed for us," in its second (the feast of First-
fruits) as " risen from the dead, the firstfruits of
them that slept."
2. The consciousness of this possesses his soul.
He acts and speaks, "knowing that his hour is
come." That history is measured by predestined
hours. So it was said at Cana, " Mine hour is not
yet come," — the hour for public action and mani-

THE PREAMBLE 33

festation to the world. Now, at this Passover, it
is the hour for the end. Twice it had been said,
" No man laid hands on Him, because his hour was
not yet come " (vii. 30 ; viii. 20), but that can be
said no more. Here that hour, so overwhelming
in its experiences, so vast in its effects, is thought
of in a single point of view. This is expressed
with a curious precision, but in a form common
with St. John (iW, in order that), " to the end that
He should depart (/_era/3f7, pass over) out of this
world unto the Father." It is a looking beyond
the hour to the result, beyond the immediate
events, which are the steps of departure, to the
state which will ensue. And why? Because of
the bearing of that great change on those who will
be left. The departure and separation from them
is the ground-thought of all the acts and words
which follow.
3. They are acts and words of love. " Having
loved his own which were in the world, He loved
them unto the end." Well may it be noted that,
under the present consciousness that the great
crisis is come, He is occupied, not with self, but
with them.
" His own," they are called ; in another sense
than that in which it had been said, " He came
unto his own (rd iSta), and his own (ot 'ihtoi)
received Him not " (i. 11). Those were his own by
natural right and connexion ; these by the bond

34 THE INCIDENTS

of faith and by the gift of the Father. Dear they
are to Him personally and by name, dear also as
chosen representatives of the little flock of dis
ciples then existing, and of all the larger flock
which they will gather, and to whom these com
munications of love will be transmitted. That
is a reason of affection. There is also the reason
of an anxious concern. They are "his own, which
are in the world," the uncongenial hostile world,
out of which He departs and in which He leaves
them. In later words we shall see how that
thought touched his heart. He had loved them
all through, and shown that love ; but now, with
a special emotion and with a special expression of
it, " He loved them unto the end." Does the word
(et? t.Xo?) intend to the last (in time), or to the
uttermost (in degree) ? The first meaning is most
natural ; but both are included. Last expressions
of affection are apt to be most tender or intense.
It will be seen, I think, that this verse, read as a
preamble to the five chapters, gives, with remark
able precision, the leading ideas which pervade
them : the historical setting, the consciousness of
the Speaker, the relation of the hearers to Him
and to the world, and the consequent character
of the intercourse described.
But do not these introductory words ask for
reflection as well as explanation? The love
wherewith Jesus loved his own, which is to

THE PREAMBLE 35

be so amply illustrated in these chapters, is a
subject to arrest our thoughts. It is one from
which the mind cannot hastily pass away. How
many kinds, measures, and tones of meaning are
comprehended in this word " Love " ! So it is
in common language, and even when one spe
cific use of it has been excluded. So it is in
Scripture. There is a difference in the love of
God as God, of Jesus Christ as Saviour, of our
friends and relations, of our neighbours, of our
enemies, of our people, of our kind. It is all love,
but with what various combinations of idea and
casts and measures of feeling! So on the divine
side. The Father loved the Son ; God loved the
world; Jesus loved his own (in that common
character); He loved them as individuals; He
" loved Martha and Mary and Lazarus," and there
was one disciple "whom Jesus loved." We are
all sensible of the differences of impression con
veyed in these connexions, though it would be
vain to attempt to describe them. Furthermore,
we remember at what a disadvantage we are, com
pared with those who wrote in Greek or Latin,
having but one word in our English use to express
the two that they had in theirs, and which they
employed with an intentional and often an exact
discrimination. Trench (" Synonyms of the N. T.,"
p. 43) distinguishes the force of the words dyairdm
and <pt\ea> ; and, in reference to their interchange

36 THE INCIDENTS

in the exemplary passage (John xxi. 15-17 x), he
observes : " All this subtle and delicate play of
feeling disappears, perforce, in a translation which
either does not care, or is not able, to reproduce
the variation of the words as they exist in the
original." Whether it cared or not, certainly it
was not able, as the Revised Version has itself
practically confessed. Here, however, we are con
cerned only with one of these words Qd'yairdm')
which became the great Christian verb, and
brought into use the cognate noun which hea
thenism did not employ.2 The verb and substan
tive occurring thirty times in these chapters
stamps their contents as a ministry of love.
Yet, as the force of words is best felt by com
parison, it may be observed that, while the other
word (^tXet.) has more of the instinctive and
emotional (it may be even unreasoning) char
acter of personal friendship or affection, this
word (ayairdw) expresses more of motive and of
purpose ; it is a larger, deeper love, from con
scious reasons and settled dispositions, out of
reach of caprices of feeling. These characters
of love, thus distinguished, are plainly not op
posed. Nay, they are closely related, the one
disposing to the other. In perfect human love
1 Augustin, imperfect in linguistic skill, from the same pas
sage deduces the conclusion that the equivalent words in Latin
indifferably represent the same idea.
2 " ay&ir-q, vox solum biblica et ecclesiastica." — Grimm.

THE PREAMBLE 37

they are one. In fact, they are one here. But
enough has been said; for love does not yield
itself to analysis and definition. In such attempts
its life seems to evaporate and the sense of it to
pass from us.
In regard to this love of Christ, the one distinc
tion to be recognised here is that between his love
to the world, and to his own which are in the
world. The love of Christ to the world is love to
men as such ; He being the head of the creation,
which through Him came into being, and of the
race of whose reason and conscience, He, as the
Eternal Word, is the author, and with which,
in taking flesh, He has assumed a natural and uni
versal kindred. It is a love of compassion and
benevolence and divine desire, in which He gives
Himself for all, and dies for all, and provides recon
ciliation, and preaches peace, and seeks the lost,
and waits to be gracious, and would " draw all men
to Himself." But the love for his own which are
in the world is no longer mere desire and en
deavour. It is being realised in results intended.
It has found response, and is generating a recipro
cal life, and has the joy of exercising an attraction
which is felt and owned, and of carrying on a work
which imparts blessing and tends to perfection,
restoring men to God through relations with Him
who has loved them, relations which are spiritual,
intimate, and eternal. Such love enters into the

38 THE INCIDENTS

inner life of the beloved, and finds occasion for its
exercise in their needs and dangers, their infirm
ities and failings. It 'delights to comfort and pro
tect, to cleanse, to heal, to strengthen, to exalt.
It is an inexhaustible fountain of gifts ; it is the
" love of Christ which passeth knowledge." Yet,
being true love, it is not content to give. It desires
also to receive. It would be understood and trusted
and confided in. It invites sympathy and fellow
ship. It claims reciprocity of affection. It would
not only love, but be loved. Even in these last
respects this is the character of the love which
these chapters disclose. For our sake they dis
close it, teaching us how He once loved, and by
consequence how He ever loves, how He now loves,
his own which are in the world.
Reflection on the nature of the love here ex
pressed, puts us on observing the form and man
ner of its expression, giving a certain aspect to the
scenes which follow. Love is far-reaching and con
veys its blessings down into the centre and heart
of life ; but it has also sweet influences on its out
ward aspect, and gentle lights which play upon its
surface. Where these are wanting, the kindest
intentions and most generous sacrifices often lose
something of their effect; at least, they leave
something to desire. No such want is here. In
this, the longest record of more intimate hours, we
see with greater distinctness the character of the

THE PREAMBLE 39

intercourse which love had created, in the terms on
which the Lord lived with the disciples, and the
disciples with the Lord. In a measure this is
understood from the notices of private converse
scattered through all the Gospels. On exceptional
occasions there is an overmastering sense of awe.
" Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord."
" What manner of man is this that even the winds
and the sea obey Him ? " " They feared to ask
Him of that saying." " They followed Him trem
bling." But, notwithstanding this, the general habit
is easy and unconstrained. They are not only his
school, but his family ; He lives with them, and
his presence gives grace and sweetness to the com
mon life. Even to the public, the great Teacher
was not austere. In contrast to the Baptist, " the
Son of Man came eating and drinking," and en
tered where He was invited, and sat down to meat.
And the nearer men were to Him, the more the
kindliness, as well as the holiness, was felt. Take
for example the little incident in Matt. xvii. 24-27.
Peter comes in with a doubtful question on his
mind. " But Jesus prevented him, What thinkest
thou, Simon ? Of whom do the kings of the earth
take custom or tribute? from their sons or from
strangers? When he said from strangers, Jesus
said to him, Then the sons are free. But lest
we should offend them go thou to the sea, and
cast an hook, and take up the fish that first

40 THE INCIDENTS

cometh up ; and when thou hast opened his mouth
thou shalt find a shekel ; that take and give unto
them for me and thee." Other incidents might be
cited in which this sweetness of association ap
pears, adding the terms and tokens of human affec
tion to the deeper love of the Eternal Friend,
interweaving, so to speak, the <pt,\eiv with the
dyairav. In these chapters this characteristic impresses
us strongly — most distinctly in the words of love
that are spoken ; but there is an indefinable pres
ence of it in all that transpires. We observe it
in the sop handed to Judas, as later more pain
fully in the traitorous kiss, traces of terms which
had subsisted before. We observe it in all reclin
ing together, in John leaning back on the Master's
breast and looking up to ask for the word of secret
confidence. We observe it in the straightforward
questions and eager utterances of Peter, and in
the expostulatory interruptions of Thomas, of
Philip, and of Jude. In all that passes there is
an absence of constraint, a natural and trustful
freedom, which gives a lively sense of the relations
in which they were used to live. Among our
selves we are all sensitive to the different effect
in this respect which the presence of one person
or another will create. It is not exactly the dif
ference in degrees of reverence or of love. These
feelings may exist alike in either case. But in

THE PREAMBLE 41

one presence there is a feeling of constraint: we
are careful what we say, and doubtful how it may
be taken. In another we feel at ease ; behave
naturally, and say what comes into our minds.
It is remarkable indeed that these latter terms
should have so far subsisted . in association with
One who looked men through and through, and
whose words and acts made ever-fresh and ever-
increasing impressions of mysterious majesty and
power. In the coexistence of these profound
impressions with what I venture to call a happy
companionship we are sensible of a singular, or
rather a unique, effect. Evidently there was an
attractive power in the presence of Jesus of Naza
reth, which inspired those nearest to Him with as
much of trustfulness as of reverence. And now
when some great crisis is felt to be at hand, when
the dark cloud of sorrow is descending on the
little company, it is all the more touching to note
the continuance of these mutual relations, so sweet
and confiding, notwithstanding the clear conscious
ness, on the one side, of all that is coming, and the
bewildered ignorance of it on the other. Down to
the very close of his life in the flesh, on the verge
of the departure to the Father, " having loved his
own which were in the world, He loved them to
the end."

42 THE INCIDENTS

CHAPTER II
AT SUPPER
"And during supper ... he riseth from the supper." — v. 2-4.
As the first verse is an introduction to the
whole record, so are the next three verses an in
troduction to this chapter. It just mentions the
occasion of the incidents to be related, and then
states more fully the consciousness under which
the Lord acted with reference to them both.
The occasion is a supper. "Supper being
ended" is the Authorised; "During supper," the
Revised translation. There are two readings,
giving different tenses to the verbs. Setirvov,
yevo/j.evov, when supper took place, or was come ;
Beiirvov yivop,evov, when supper was taking place,
or in course of it. Neither of them would mean
that it was ended; and either of them would
naturally suggest the early part of the meal rather
than the close of it.
But what supper is this ? When ? and where ?
There is no information. That is after the man
ner of St. John. No writer can show a more
vivid recollection of details. "Some memories,"
says Professor Sanday, writing on the feeding of

AT SUPPER 43

the five thousand, "are essentially pictorial; and
this Apostle's appears to have been one of these.
It is wonderful with what precision every stroke
is thrown in " (p. 123). Yet no writer introduces
his incidents more suddenly, or tells so little of
the connexions and surroundings of his scenes.
They appear as islands of memory, emerging into
clear light from circumambient mists. What was
the cause of this fragmentary use of a power
which existed in so remarkable a degree, and
which is illustrated in this very chapter? There
was a twofold cause, — a definite purpose in writ
ing, and a sense of previous information in his
readers. The definite purpose is on the face of the book.
It is written not as a " Life of Christ," nor even
as an account of his manifestation, but only of a
certain line of it ; namely, that which exhibits the
fullest expression of his own revelation of Him
self. This plan of limitation to a purpose and of
selection from far larger resources for a practical
end is avowed at the close of the book. " Many
other signs did Jesus in the presence of his disci
ples, which are not written in this book : but these
are written that ye may believe that Jesus is the
Christ, the Son of God ; and that believing ye may
have life in his name" (xx. 30, 31).
Also, according to trustworthy tradition the
final composition was late in life, therefore in the

44 THE INCIDENTS

midst of an established Christianity. In the facts
of the evangelical history, as we learn from St.
Luke, converts like Theophilus were "orally
instructed." Moreover, " many had taken in hand
to write " them, and there is ample reason to
believe that not only was the information which
is perpetuated in the synoptic gospels previously
diffused in the churches, but that those writings
themselves were already in men's hands. In such
circumstances St. John could well confine him
self to his own special contribution. He wrote,
we are told, by one authority, "impelled by his
friends and divinely moved by the Spirit " ; by
another, "his fellow-disciples and bishops, ur
gently exhorting him " ; by another, "constrained
by his brothers to write."1 The peculiar brevity of
his two letters, and certain words in them, incline
me to think that work with " paper and ink," with
" ink and pen," was not congenial to his habit ; but,
also, no doubt he felt all the gravity of an act
which would present to all the world, and fix in final
shape for ever the highest testimony which he had
been used to bear. To that he could confine him
self, as writing for those who had other sources of
information. Thus he pursues the line of teaching which
he intends, with the slightest possible notice, or
without any notice, of connected facts or of cir-
1 See Bishop Westcott's "Introduction," p. 35.

AT SUPPER 45

cumstances implied. Thus in the Gospel, on the
whole, he can give the chief features of the Judean
ministry, as occurring at intervals in a Galilean life
which he intimates, but does not relate. So in
the last week in Jerusalem the days crowded with
incident are nearly all passed by, in order to reach
at once that particular report which it belongs to
him to give. This also he begins at once, with no
explanation as to place or time or occasion save
that it was at supper. " The Discourse in the
Upper Room" it is called, but St. John does not
say so. How that room was chosen by the Lord,
how it was found by the disciples furnished and
prepared, how " they made ready the Passover,"
how, " when the hour was come He sat down with
his disciples," how at that supper He instituted
the sacrament, — these things are not told. They
need not be told ; for certainly that supper was a
living memory in all the churches, repeated in
their feasts of love, and perpetuated in the final
Eucharist and Communion of the Body and Blood.
What St. John has to record is the teaching given
on that night, and he writes for those who know
when and where it was given. For them the
mere mention of supper is enough. "During a
supper," Bishop Westcott would translate, but that
suggests any supper, or some supper unknown.
"During supper" of the Revised Version is bet
ter, as being a natural expression where the situ
ation is understood.

46 THE INCIDENTS

St. John's narrative alone is the subject for the
present study, yet his mention of the supper raises
collateral questions which, as they cannot be for
gotten, ought to receive notice. We naturally
ask: 1. Whe re was this supper? 2. Whe n was it
held? 3. What was its character? On the first
of these questions we have circumstantial informa
tion. The second raises a question of great
difficulty. On the third we have a measure of
certainty. But in consequence of St. John's
method of limitation to his own topics, the answers
to these questions, whatever they might be, or the
absence of answers to them, would scarcely in
any degree affect the interpretation of the words
which we have to consider.
1. The place of the supper was, as we learn
from the synoptics, a matter both of special selec
tion and of cautious intimation. Nothing is said
till the last moment, when there is just time to
act, and the disciples enquire what they are to do.
No place is named ; but the two confidential per
sons, Peter and John, are sent (so to speak) with
sealed instructions. They will, at the entrance of
the city, meet a man bearing a pitcher of water,
and are to follow him into the house which he
enters. They are to give a message to the owner:
The Master saith, My time is at hand. Where is
the guest chamber where I shall eat the Pass
over with my disciples ? That message would be

AT SUPPER 47

enough. It would prove to be the house of a
friend. He would welcome the party denounced
by the authorities, whom most other houses would
have feared to receive. He would shew them a
large upper room furnished and ready. In the
crowded state of the city it was not to be expected
that such an apartment should remain to the last
unoccupied and unengaged. We recognise in it
all both a divine knowledge and also a secret
providence. But why this caution ? It is part of
the prudence which the critical circumstances re
quired. Bystanders shall know nothing, Judas
shall know nothing of the place till the moment it
is entered. There shall be no intelligence which
can precipitate the events of the night. The
chosen place shall be secure, so long as it is needed
for the solemn institution, the holy teachings, the
last converse, of which it is to be the scene. These
shall not be interrupted. There shall be no inva
sion or seizure here. Thus the large upper room
became the first Christian Church, to which all
churches in Christendom are extensions or succes
sions, the place of the passage from the old cove
nant to the new; of the first celebration of the
Sacrament of the Lord's Supper, of the highest
teaching from the Lord's own lips, and probably
of the prayer which opens the intercessions above.
2. From the place of the supper we turn to the
time. As to the day of the week, there is un-

48 THE INCIDENTS

doubted certainty ; as to the day of the month, an
enduring debate.
The Lord's " Last Supper " was, according to all
the Gospels, on " the same night on which He was
betrayed," and that is shown by the sequence of
events to have been Thursday. The supper with
all its incidents, the agony in the garden, the arrest,
trials, condemnation, crucifixion, and hurried burial
were all comprised in one day of twenty-four hours,
reckoned, according to Jewish method, from sun
set on Thursday to sunset on Friday, " when the
Sabbath drew on." After that silent Sabbath,
very early in the morning, the Lord rose from the
dead; and, in order to secure the celebration of
the Resurrection on the first day of the week, the
instinct of the Church has (universally since the
termination of the quarto-deciman controversy)
adhered to the weekly, without regard to the
monthly date.
Whether in that year the Thursday fell on
the 13th Nisan, as we should gather from St.
John, or on the 14th, as it appears in the syn
optic gospels, has been debated of old, and is
debated still. " These seeming differences," says
Waterland,1 " have occasioned very long and intri
cate disputes between Greeks and Latins, and
among learned men, both ancient and modern,
which remain even to this day." In our time
1 "Doctrine of the Eucharist," ch. ii.

AT SUPPER 49

they have been renewed with fuller investigation
and greater critical skill. After reading a multi
tude of these discussions, I am the more disposed
to adopt the words in which this author continues :
" I shall not presume to take the place of a mod
erator in so nice a debate, but shall be content to
report as much as may serve to give the reader
some notion of it for my present purpose." His
statement of the three schemes or opinions on the
matter is still sufficient. "1. The most ancient
and most prevailing is that our Lord kept the
legal Passover on the same day with the Jews "
(that is scarcely the most prevailing now). — " The
second opinion is that He anticipated, for weighty
reasons, the time of the Jewish Passover; and so
kept his before theirs. 3. The third opinion is
that He kept no Passover, properly so called, but
had a supper, and afterwards instituted the Eucha
rist, the mystical or Christian Passover."
The first opinion supposes Thursday to be the
14th Nisan, and for it the synoptic gospels, on
the face of them, seem decisive. The second
and third opinions suppose Thursday to be the
13th, making the 14th to be the day of the
crucifixion; and that is the inference naturally
drawn from the language of St. John. It is not
within the present purpose to argue the case,
and so add another to the discussions in which
everything possible seems to have been said ; espe-

50 THE INCIDENTS

cially as the view which I take has been reached
with hesitation, and is not that of the commenta
tors, whom in general I should be most inclined
to follow. Confining myself to the Gospels, it
seems to me that the synoptic witness for the 14th
Nisan is explicit, and cannot without the greatest
force be made compatible with the other opinion ;
and that St. John's apparent witness for the 13th
is an inference, and can be far more easily ex
plained in conformity with the other supposition.
"The Feast of the Passover," as commonly
spoken of, consisted of two parts, which in the
law of institution are discriminated ; e.g. in Num.
xxviii. 16, 17, " In the fourteenth day of the first
month is the Passover of the Lord; and in the
fifteenth day is the Feast: seven days shall un
leavened bread be eaten," the first and last of these
seven being days of " holy convocation." But by
custom, though not by law, the 14th Nisan was
reckoned as " the first day of unleavened bread,"
all leaven being put away at an early hour, accord
ing to the Jewish system of creating margins so
as to make " a fence around the Law."
On this "the first day of unleavened bread"
(says St. Matthew), " the first day of unleavened
bread when they sacrificed the Passover " (says St.
Mark), " the day of unleavened bread when the
Passover must be sacrificed " (says St. Luke), " the
disciples came to Jesus, saying, Where wilt thou

AT SUPPER 51

that we make ready for Thee to eat the Passover? "
They were sent with the message : " Where is the
guest-chamber where I eat the Passover with my
disciples?" (Luke). "They made ready the Pass
over" (Matt.). "When the _ow was come" (evi
dently the regular hour), " they sit down, and Jesus
says : With desire I have desired to eat this Pass
over with you before I suffer" (Luke). All this
seems as plain as anything can be for the paschal
meal, held at the appointed hour on the appointed
day, the evening of the 14th Nisan.
In St. John the expressions which look the other
way are, first, the opening words of this section:
"Before the Feast of the Passover when Jesus
knew," etc. ; secondly, the supposition when Judas
left the room that he might be sent " to buy some
thing for the feast " ; and thirdly, the care of the
priests not to enter the praetorium, "that they
should not be defiled, but that they might eat the
Passover." These expressions naturally imply that
the Passover would be kept on the evening of Fri
day ; but they are incidental expressions, not like
the positive statements of the synoptics, and do not
necessitate the inference which they suggest. " Be
fore the Feast of the Passover " regards not merely
the paschal supper, but the whole feast which it
inaugurated, as being the predestined time for de
parting out of this world unto the Father. The
purchase of things for the feast would refer, quite

52 THE INCIDENTS

naturally, to things wanted for the Chagigah, the
great festival day which followed the paschal sup
per. In regard to the avoiding defilement on the
Friday morning in order to "eat the Passover,"
the expression may probably have been in use for
participation in the sacrifices and sanctified food of
that day. In fact, the defilement in the early morn
ing would only have lasted to the evening, and so
would not have disqualified for eating the paschal
supper.1 These explanations of the words in St.
John are at least far more admissible than those
which have been offered on the other side in regard
to the language of the synoptics.
We have further to take into account that
throughout the Gospel St. John writes freely, as
for persons well informed of facts which he omits.
If any occasion was well known in the Church,
certainly this was, through the universal celebra
tion of the Supper ; and as the Institution of the
Sacrament is given only by the synoptics, their
statement of that institution and their account of
the circumstances of the supper, must stand or fall
together. As to their account itself, the remark
ably lively details are evidence of an authentic
report, and forbid all thoughts of a later and
erroneous tradition. I must say, with Luthardt,
"It cannot be made conceivable how the error
could have come into the synoptic account. Let
1 Edersheim, vol. ii. p. 266. Luthardt, vol. iii. p. 251.

AT SUPPER 53

the first three Gospels be written by whom they
may, they are not to be looked upon as literary
products of individual writers, but as fixing the
primal Church, Christian tradition, as it was com
monly familiar in the home of that tradition, and
went back to the reports made by the Apostles
themselves " (vol. iii. p. 245). From this point of
view I read the Fourth Gospel as written for those
who held this common tradition, and to whom its
incidental expressions would suggest no other idea.
Anyhow, the language has no character of emphatic
statement and correction of a mistake. The writer
seems unconscious of any difference of opinion on
the subject, and if he really does mean that the
evening was the 13th Nisan, he supposes that to
be generally known and accepted, and we are then
brought to the harder task of explaining the sy
noptic account by such methods as we may.1
1 This is attempted on various lines ; e.g. an anticipatory
Passover on the previous day, "Before I suffer" (Godet) ; a
true Passover on the right day, the Jews keeping theirs on a
wrong one (Stier), etc. The conclusion for the 13th Nisan
is maintained by most recent English commentators. See Man
sel on Matt. xxvi. (Speaker) ; Farrar on Luke xxii. (Cambridge
Bible) ; Sanday," Historical Character of Fourth Gospel," p. 210 ;
Westcott, " Introduction to Study of Gospel," p. 339. I do not
argue the case, and have taken note of nothing beyond the lan
guage of the Gospels ; but there are many other elements in the
intricate discussion. I will only note one point which, in the
arguments that I have seen, does not appear to receive due
attention. It is assumed that the coincidence of the moment of
the death of Christ with that appointed for the offering of the

54 THE INCIDENTS

The third question which was proposed, that on
the character of the supper, is, of course, fully
answered, if it be taken as held on the 14th
Nisan. It was then in all respects the regular
paschal meal. But if it be taken as held on the
13th, this character is not, on that account, obliter
ated, since the advocates of this opinion generally
represent it as a partial or anticipatory Passover.
Certainly the " Last Supper " was not an ordinary
meal, but in some sense or other a Passover, hav
ing its large suggestions, its significant stages and
ritual customs, and the present narrative is so far
in harmony with such an occasion, as it gives the
impression of a meal protracted by customary acts
(marked in one place by the giving of the sop)
and allowing space for holy converse. The open-
paschal lamb is essential to the analogy. But the historical
event was composite, consisting of safety in destruction and the
¦ exodus which followed. The "Feast of the Passover" cele
brated the event as a whole, including the preliminary sacrifice
and meal on the 14th Nisan, and the exodus which commenced
on the 15th. The "Memorial Day" (Ex. xii. 14) began with
the first night and extended to the second, "the night to be
much observed unto the Lord for bringing them out from the
land of Egypt. This is that night of the Lord, to be observed
of all the children of Israel in their generations" (v. 42).  In
the antitype, also, this memorial day included the entire event,
from the evening when the Lord yielded himself to die, to the
evening when He entered upon "his exodus" in death (Luke
ix. 31). In the supreme moment the whole composite event
was comprised. The sacrifice was consummated, and the ex
odus commenced.

AT SUPPER 55

ing words, "before the Feast of the Passover,"
certainly connect all that passes with that thought,
and make it a paschal supper for the Lord; and
all is in harmony with such a closing of the past and
opening up of the future, as is represented in the
synoptic gospels, when they shew the last celebra
tion of the Passover passing into the institution of
the Eucharist. There in the form of sacrament
the old is seen passing into the new ; here in the
form of discourse a corresponding transition is ex
pected. The words of farewell to the past become
expository of an immediate and expanding future.
They are voices of departure, but departure into a
new spiritual scene. The supper in St. John is
held on the eve of a great exodus.
Some notice of the questions on the place, the
time, and the character of the supper seemed im
perative, but, in respect of the narrative which
we follow, it is parenthetic. That has only
the words " during supper " or " supper being
come," and goes straight to incidents and dis
courses which will not be affected in their inter
pretation by the solution which those questions
may receive.
And first, to give a due sense of the situation,
one particular must be mentioned ; for it was one
which not only cast a dark shadow on the com
mencement of the supper, but linked it at its end
to the scenes which followed.

56 THE INCIDENTS

Jesus then was alone with the twelve. That is
not stated here, but is understood throughout.
They were at supper, reclining, as the manner was,
at a low table, leaning each on his left side against
a cushion, half turned from the companion on his
right, the unsandaled feet stretched out behind.
The friendly house was a haven for the present.
These hours were an interval of rest. They were
all brethren, with their Lord and Master in the
midst. But in family union and at a common meal there
may be one with an unsuspected secret which
isolates him inwardly from all his fellows. Such
an one was here. He sat, revolving a great crime
to which he had pledged himself the day before,
and which is to be accomplished that night.
" The Devil," it is said, " having already cast into
the heart of Judas Iscariot, Simon's son, to betray
him." It seems spoken of as a sudden impulse ;
but such impulses from the power of evil fall only
on hearts prepared for them. A later notice of
his conduct as manager for the company tells some
thing of falseness and meanness in the past ; and
of late his heart has turned against his Lord. The
repulsion which his whole nature would feel from
that searching insight of holiness is explanation
enough. But two days before the Passover, the
dark history had come to a crisis. When Jesus
had finished all his words to the people (Matt.

AT SUPPER 57

xxvi. 1), and when He departed and did hide Him
self from them (John xii.), the end of the conflict
was close and clear. It was announced in the
circle of the Apostles. • " Ye know that after two
days the Passover takes place, and the Son of Man
is delivered up to be crucified." If others could
not accept it, he did. It sounded to him as a
voice of despair. The enemies would triumph;
Jesus would succumb: there was an end of all
thought of a victory and a kingdom ; all that is lost :
but something of another sort may be got — per
haps thirty pieces of silver ! At the same time the
council of death is being held. Through some
kindred channel of information he knows it ; and
learns the difficulty which he is just the man to
meet. He who knows so well the private hours
and quiet places of resort, can manage an arrest
when there will be no protection from multitude
or public excitement. The offer is made, and the
bargain struck. He returus to his place in the
company with the secret in his heart ; and more
than the secret. He has sold himself to the power
of darkness, whose hour is come. He sits at supper,
a hired agent of the Devil. The dark shadow of
this alien element must pass from the room, before
it becomes the scene of the farewell words, loving,
holy, and serene. That removal is prepared, but
it will be approached by degrees; and another
incident precedes it.

58 THE INCIDENTS

Both incidents are purifications preparatory to
the communications which follow. The first is
a symbolic cleansing of the whole society ; the
second is the elimination of the evil thing that
lurks within it.

THE WASHING OF THE FEET 59

CHAPTER III
THE WASHING OF THE FEET
" Jesus knowing that the Father had given all things into his
hands, and that he came forth from God, and goeth unto
God, riseth from supper, and layeth aside his garments ; and
he took a towel and girded himself. Then he poureth water
into the bason and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to
wipe them with the towel wherewith he was girded." — 3-5.
Again we read of the consciousness of Jesus.
By thoughtful observation, by sympathetic appre
hension, and by special illumination, the disciple
nearest to his heart knows and interprets his
mind. He acted, we are told, under a present
sense of the truth of his nature and the majesty
of his power, which the conditions of the flesh
did not suspend or obscure. In the view of the
disciples at that time it was their Lord and Master
who took the place of their servant. They knew
afterwards, — they were learning even then, — that
it was " the Lord of all," " come forth from God and
going to God." But why was He here ? " Not to
be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give
his life a ransom for many." The second word
will be fulfilled on the morrow; the first is ex-

60 THE INCIDENTS

pressed afresh on the last evening by an act never
to be forgotten.
The scene is depicted with the vivid memory of
the writer, in all its movements and details, from
the moment when Jesus riseth from the supper
to that in which He has taken his garments and is
set down again. In the present tenses all passes
before the eye, and we seem to share the surprise
of the moment. He rises from the supper, He is
laying aside his upper garments. Now He has
taken a towel and girded Himself, as a servant for
household work. Now He casts water into the
bason. In the room " furnished and prepared "
all is ready. The viirrr]p, the vessel for the usual
hand or foot washing, the towels for wiping are at
hand, as likely to be used, but they have not been
used. Had there been some neglect ? The act was
proper to any special meal. For a host to neglect
it was deemed a want of attention, worthy of re
proof. " Thou gavest Me no water for my feet "
(Luke vii. 44). But there was no servant here to
do it ; and it did not occur to the disciples to wash
one another's feet. Indeed, they lay down in a
very different frame of mind. " There arose," St.
Luke tells us, " a contention among them, which
of them is accounted to be greater" (xxii. 24).
This could not have been after the touching scene
of instruction, and it belongs naturally to the
claims of precedence in taking the places at the

in THE WASHING OF THE FEET 61
table. Dr. Edersheim thinks that the first place
was claimed and taken by Judas, as the managing
member of the company. He seems from later
words to have been next to his Master, on one side.
A little time may have been given for this dispute,
and then it was answered in the way we read here.
" Sb he cometh to Simon Peter. He saith to him, Lord
dost thou wash my feet? Jesus answered and said unto
him, What I do thou knowest not now ; but thou shalt un
derstand hereafter. Peter saith unto him, Thou shalt never
wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou
hast no part with me. Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord
not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus
saith unto him, He that is bathed needeth not save to wash
his feet, but is clean every whit : and ye are clean, but not
all. For he knew who should betray him : therefore said
he, Ye are not all clean " (6-11).
Peter was not the first taken. Certainly he
was the one to speak. Can anything be more true
to nature than this dialogue ? Here is the same
Peter whom we know from the other evangelists,
warm-hearted, impulsive, uttering all his thoughts,
and when corrected liable to a sudden rebound.
His behaviour here is a study of character, and, as
such, is instruction and admonition. " Lord, dost
thou wash my feet? " (<ru fj,ov v iVret. to.? 7ro'_a. ; )
Reverence is shocked, humility shrinks back.
But is it reverence to question the Lord's proceed
ings ? Is it humility to reject his methods ? to re
ject them absolutely, even when corrected ? " Thou

62 THE INCIDENTS

shalt never wash my feet," never (et. tov ai&va). —
And yet again, when overcome by a word that
alarms his soul, it is less submission than presump
tion which would improve on the Lord's methods
and dictate what shall be done. Easily may good
feelings pass into faulty conditions of mind, and
sincere intentions into serious dangers. So it often
happens from the unsuspected absence of the true
humility, and from looking at things from our own
point of view, instead of taking that at which the
Lord would set us.
If we are admonished by the mistakes of the
disciple, much more are we instructed by the
answers which correct them. They have the fre
quent character of the sayings of Jesus, — that of
meeting the occasion and at the same time going
far beyond it.
" What I do thou knowest not now ; but thou
shalt understand hereafter." These are precise
expressions to be noted. As in the words of
Peter, so in 'those of Christ, the pronouns are
made prominent, marking the contrast between the
"I " and " Thou " (. iyco ttoiw, _-_¦ ovk otSa?)- Also
the difference between two kinds of knowing (one
that of intuitive perception, the other that of
acquired understanding) is noted in this passage,
as it is in others, by use of the two verbs eiSco and
ytvojo-tcco. Any one may, if he likes, limit these
words to the occasion, the "now" (aprt) to Peter's

in THE WASHING OF THE FEET 63
ignorance at the moment; the "hereafter" (/_era
Tavra) to the subsequent explanation; which is
certainly their first intention. But, in the mind
of Christ, how true it was of all that He was doing
then ! incomprehensible as it was at the time, and
only to be understood when the day of illumina
tion should come. Then those who beheld the sub
mission to death would understand that it was the
redemption of the world. That was the greatest
of all instances ; but the principle is ever to be
borne in mind. Christ is manifest in remembrance ;
the dealings of God are explained by their issues ;
and the course of the Kingdom interpreted in the
end. It is a sound argument to silence objections,
to arrest hasty conclusions, and to maintain the faith
and patience of the saints. " What I do thou know
est not now, but thou shalt understand hereafter."
The two other words are on one subject, — the
washing itself. It has been a question whether
any meaning is to be ascribed to this act beyond
that which will shortly be given to it as a lesson
on the service of love. In that case, the service is
the only point ; the form of it, as a washing, has
no special significance, and the washing, as applied
to the disciples, would mean only their submission
to be thus ministered to, and their own participa
tion in the spirit of the ministration.1 But to the
1 Godet, ii. 435: "Faut il voir, avec Hengstenberg, dans le
lavement des pieds un symbole du pardon du pech. par le sang

64 THE INCIDENTS chap.
act of washing, as such, a distinct significance is
given by the stern warning and the pregnant say
ing which follow ; and if that significance be not
fully admitted, it seems to me that the act loses
much of its symbolic fitness, and very much of its
sweet intention.
Both the act and the words used concerning it
suggest other passages in which water, washing,
purification, cleansing, cleanness, are representa
tive of spiritual acts and experiences. These pre
sent a certain aspect of our necessities and of the
provision made for them in Christ, which is dis
tinguishable (though not separable) from moral
de Christ ? Rien dans la circonstance qui avait donnfi lieu a cet
acte, non plus que dans l'explication qu'en donne Jesus (v. 12
et suiv.) ne conduit a y donner ce sens. . . . N'est il pas tout
simple de penser que Jfesus envisage le refus de Pierre d' accepter
le service qu'il veut lui rendre comme un refus de sa part
d'entrer en plein dans l'esprit de son oeuvre et comme un
acte de perseverance opiniatre dans l'amour de la grandeur
charnelle, dort JSsus voulait prgcisfiment purifier ses disciples
en leur donnant en sa personne cet exemple d'humilitS."
So Edersheim, ii. 500. The act was symbolic as meaning
that it was "required to wash the feet in spiritual consecration
to the service of love. ... So his words referred not, as is
often supposed, to the forgiveness of daily sins, the introduction
of which would have been wholly abrupt and unconnected with
the context ; but, in contrast to all self-seeking, to the daily
consecration of our lives to the service of love."
On the contrary, it seems to me that the idea of cleansing is
closely connected with the situation, as the close of the walk
with Christ; and to resolve "I wash thee," and the fuller
words which follow, into the self-consecration of humility ap
pears to be an evasion of their obviously independent meaning.

in THE WASHING OF THE FEET 65
renovation, and also from judicial forgiveness. It
is an aspect which has its distinct importance in
our spiritual consciousness and in our view of the
work of Christ. The ideas of guilt and of un
cleanness are certainly different, and create dif
ferent feelings in the mind, while both attach to
sin. Both ideas were exhibited, both feelings were
developed, in the typical scheme of the Old Testa
ment ; and both ideas were interpreted and both
feelings were satisfied in the work of Him who
"came by water and blood." But the removing
of the uncleanness has behind it the atoning for
guilt, and therefore the shedding of blood is the
ultimate condition of purification, and the blood is
said to cleanse. But this truth is here in the back
ground, and is not directly represented in this act
or these words. The divers washings of the Old
Testament were for the removal of uncleanness,
both in the distressing sense of it, and still more in
its disqualifying effect in regard to acts of min
istry, worship, or communion. To relieve from
these effects of sin is one consequence (or one may
say one side) of the forgiveness of sin, and to be
stow this relief is the prerogative of the Son of
Man ; and He was expressing it now by the act
which it pleased Him to perform. He was ex
pressing and conveying it, for his expressions are
conveyances ; and the refusal of the symbol would
be the rejection of the gift. What then? "If I

66 THE INCIDENTS

wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me." It is
a word of absolute severance, which shews how
real must be the washing, which is a necessary
condition of association and participation. It was
an alarming word to Peter. Objections vanished
at the sound. He passed to an enthusiasm of sub
mission. "Lord, not my feet only, but also my
hands and my head." We thank him for words
which drew forth a fuller explanation of the act.
"He that is bathed (o XeXov/j,evo<;) needeth not
save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit ; and
ye are clean, but not all." It was a happy explana
tion for them, and all the more clear in meaning
from the exception made. In the sight of their
Lord they were washed and clean. That was their
normal state. Was there an intended reference
to their baptism? We do not know that they had
ever been baptised, save with the baptism of John.
But the symbolism of that was understood, as ap
pears from the " question about purifying," which
in the beginning of this Gospel is said to have cre
ated agitation (iii. 25). It implied an unfitness
and disqualification for entrance into the coming
Kingdom, requiring even in children of Abraham
a cleansing by definite act of divine grace and by
moral renovation attending it. Of that prelimi
nary cleansing these disciples had been true recipi
ents, and in their adhesion to the Lord it had
reached its true completion. That state of grace

in THE WASHING OF THE FEET 67
and change is recognised in this parabolic lan
guage. They were as persons who had bathed, and
who, after a walk through the dust, needed only to
wash the feet. But they did need that. They had
walked with Christ, but not without sin, and the
uncleanness which any sin must leave needed the
renewal of cleansing. This grace at the close of
the companionship was ministered by their Lord in
the act of loving affection, by which He would
leave them (all but one) " clean every whit."
The teaching of the act and of the words have
become part of the last legacy to the Church.
Their pregnant instruction and reassuring comfort
are felt by every Christian man in his habitual
experience. As a believer, he is clean and walks
in the light, but, since he cannot " say that he has
no sin," he has ever need for renewal of cleansing
as well as quickening grace. Some commentators
appear to shun, or at least to minimise, this teach
ing, as if imported into the text, from their desire
to adhere simply to the Lord's subsequent explana
tion of his act. But those appended words do
not supersede those which precede, and which con
vey a substantive teaching of their own. The act
itself, first as washing, and then as humble service,
has a twofold character which needs the twofold
exposition which both sets of sayings give. In
that respect it is only of a piece with the general
action of Jesus. Iu hi§ works of compassion and

68 THE INCIDENTS

goodness we read the clearest moral lessons ; but
we read also between the lines the intimations of
deeper truths. In the present case the teaching
that needs reflection is left to reflection ; and the
practical lesson is impressed by the plainest words.
" So when he had washed their feet, and had taken his
garments and sat down again, he said unto them, Know ye
what I have done to you? Ye call me Master and Lord:
and ye say well, for so I am. If I then, the Lord and the
Master, have washed your feet, ye also ought to wash one
another's feet. For I have given you an example that ye
should do as I have done to you. Verily, verily, I say unto
you, A servant is not greater than his lord ; neither one that
is sent greater than he that sent him. If ye know these
things, blessed are ye if ye do them " (12-17).
Words so plain need no explaining. Teaching
so touching and solemn would only lose impression
by an attempt to impress it.
We observe the titles which are used. The
" Master " (Teacher, 8ib'do-ica\o<;') and the " Lord "
(as a term of honour) are the Rabbi and the Mar
in common Jewish use by disciples to their teachers.
These disciples have been learning to use this re
spectful address in a higher meaning than belonged
to the relation in general. But the full sense of
that meaning will come in time. For the present
it is sufficient to appeal to the recognised relations
of disciples to their master, servants to their lord,
and commissioned messengers (^dirdo-roXot) to him

m THE WASHING OF THE FEET 69
who sends them. Yet is there a higher tone of
right in " Ye call me Master and Lord, and ye say
well, for so I am " (et/__ ydp~). The relations as
serted will soon shine out in glory, investing the
charge and its example with sublime authority.
The charge insists on the sacred obligation of
duty (Ye ought, o^etXere), and it bases the duty
on the common level of nature and its claims, of
life and its necessities, on which all stand side by
side with " one another."
The example given in this particular instance
(.7T..et7/ia), being thus proposed and enforced,
becomes a definite instruction on that whole sub
ject which is summed up by St. Peter in the words
" leaving us an example that we should follow his
steps." So one light in which the Gospel story is
to be read shines out upon us here, supplying this
effectual motive and this perfect standard to the
Christian life. If some parts of the life of Christ
may be but doubtfully or partially transferable in
the way of example to our own, that is not the
case here. This is an incident which cannot be
taken by itself. The eloquent act and the plain
words constitute a final illustration of the mind of
Christ, and interpret the entire example of his
humiliation in the service of mankind. They
have impressed upon the Church the principles of
thought and the spirit of action, which are most
distinctively Christian, those of which the Gentile

70 THE INCIDENTS

never dreamed, and to which the Jew could not
reach. Here is the original source of all that
Apostles taught of lowliness of mind which con
siders others more than self ; of love by which we
are to serve one another ; of not being high-minded,
but condescending to things that are lowly; of
bearing one another's burdens, and so fulfilling the
law of Christ ; of submitting ourselves one to an
other in the fear of God ; of putting on as the elect
of God a heart of compassion, kindness, humble
ness of mind, meekness, long-suffering ; or (in lan
guage surely suggested by this very scene) of our
all '¦'¦girding ourselves with humility" to serve
one another (7. ai>Te? dXkrjXoi? rr/v Taireivocppoo-vvTjv
iy/cofi/Scoa-ao-de, 1 Pet. v. 5). Here, too, is the
source of all actual fulfilments of these charges,
and living exemplifications of this spirit. Here
is the fountain head of that stream of self-forget
ting love, self-denying devotion, self-abasing ser
vice, which flows forever, and has carried its line
of pure and heavenly light even through the most
soiled and darkened annals of the Christian Church.
It flows among us at this day, sometimes as seen
in a course of professed dedication, far more largely
diffusing its blessings along the natural channels
of ordinary life.
Yet this spirit does not prevail without hin
drance : so much there is in natural character and
in accustomed habit contrary to this mind of Christ.

THE WASHING OF THE FEET 71

He knew these tendencies as not only in the world,
but in the Church, and added to the charge and
the example words of reasonableness and warning.
" A servant is not greater than his lord, nor the
sent than the sender. If ye know these things,
blessed are ye if ye do them." Neither pride
which disdains the humbler service, nor fastidi
ousness which shrinks from it, nor indolence which
evades it, have any answer to give. The last
sentence may seem a truism in statement ; in prac
tice none is more needed. So apt we are to rest
in approval or admiration of an act or habit, as
if it thus became our own. We want these simple
words forever in our ears. They condense the
ever-recurring admonitions of the word of God,
which assign blessing, not to the knowing, but to
the doing. The " happy " of the Authorised Ver
sion is a good word, but the " blessed " of the Re
vised Version is better. It has a tone of divine
favour and exaltation ; and divine favour and ex
altation are here. It connects the saying with the
Beatitudes, where the same word opens the Gospel
teaching, and sheds a rising splendour over the
characters which it will create and the destinies
which it will secure.

Some customary imitation or commemorative repetition
of the washing of the feet was not unnatural, and in some
quarters there was a disposition to regard it as an institution,

72 THE INCIDENTS

and even use it as an ordinance, in connexion with the sacra
ment of baptism : but this was not admitted by the instinct
of the Church, even in times most favourable to such adop
tions. Bingham (B. xii. ch. 10) gives an account of this
movement in the fourth century, and quotes Augustiu to
the effect that many churches would never admit of this
custom at all, lest it should seem to belong to the sacrament
of baptism, when our Saviour only intended it as a lesson of
humility. And other churches for the same reason abrogated
the custom where it had been received. He also gives from
a book which passed under the name of St. Ambrose, an
instance of this debate, as carried on between the Church of
Milan, "where the bishop used to wash the feet of the bap
tised, and the Roman Church, which had no such custom,
alleging that it should only be done in the way of humility,
as the custom of washing the feet of strangers ; while on the
contrary, the Church of Milan argued that this was not
merely a business of humility, but of mystery and sanctifica
tion, because Christ said to Peter, If I wash thee not, thou
hast no part with me." One may argue with the Church of
Milan, as to the character of the act of Christ, as shewn by
his own words, but not as to any imitation by the Church as
invested with a like virtue. As a commemoration of the great
example of humility, it was used in various quarters, as by
ascetic saints like St. Louis, and as adopted by the Moravian
Brethren, and as connected with the celebration of Thursday
in Holy Week, lingering long as an old custom in the English
Church. " In 1530, Wolsey washed, wiped, and kissed the
feet of fifty-nine poor men at Peterborough. The practice
was continued by English sovereigns till the reign of James
II. ; and as late as 1731, the Lord High Almoner washed
the feet of recipients of the royal bounty on Maundy Thurs
day. The present custom of the feet-washing at St. Peter's
is well known" (Westcott's Note). Bengel's remark on

iii THE WASHING OF THE FEET 73
that custom is also well known, very applicable during a long
period of history, " that the Pope would shew a more serious
humility by washing the feet of one king, than those of
twelve poor men." Such customs belouged to a habit of
literalism and externalism, not helpful in the long run to a
true interpretation or application of the words " Ye ought
to wash one another's feet. I have given you an example
that ye should do as I have done to you."

74 THE INCIDENTS

CHAPTER IV
THE DETACHMENT OF JUDAS
This evening the Apostles are to receive higher
communications than before, initiating them into
the deeper mysteries of that life that is to follow,
and into new spiritual relations with their Lord.
Special preparation for this in one way was meet,
and in another way needful. Purifications for
nearer communion with God were, under the old
discipline, of two kinds. They consisted in wash
ings and lustrations for superficial or occasional
uncleanness, and in the elimination of that which
was in itself corrupt. Such was the removal of
objects connected with idolatry (e.g. Gen. xxxv. 2),
or, in a typical sense, that of leaven in the Paschal
time. The first of these purifications the Apostles
have received by symbol and by teaching ; but the
second is yet to come. They are pronounced to
be " clean, but not all." There is among them one
case of essentially evil condition, which the wash
ing of Jesus could not cleanse, and the teaching of
Jesus could not touch. It has reached a stage of
corruption which appears no longer susceptible

iv THE DETACHMENT OF JUDAS 75
of change. It must be taken away. One of the
Twelve must go. Till the brotherhood is relieved
of this foreign element and false fellowship the
spirit of the Lord is restrained, and the communi
cations of love are stayed.
We have now to observe the process of removal,
accomplished without exposure or compulsion, in a
manner gentle to the end, though significantly and
severely sad.
The note of warning just given is now repeated : —
" I speak not of you all : I know whom I have chosen :
but that the scripture may be fulfilled. He that eateth my
bread lifted up his heel against me. From henceforth I
tell you before it come to pass, that, when it is come to
pass, ye may believe that I am. Verily, verily, I say unto
you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send receiveth me : and
he that receiveth me receiveth him that sent me" (18-20).
The language is abrupt and elliptical. Critics
remark on a want of connexion. Commentators
supply connexions of thought, sometimes rather
forced. One cannot doubt that through these scenes
more was said than is recorded, and that the mem
ory of the evangelist fastens on the salient points.
But we also know that this character of expression
is itself natural when the mind is occupied with
two opposed ideas. The predominant thought
proper to the company of disciples is that of the
relations of the servants to their lord, and of
those sent to him who sends them; and this is

76 THE INCIDENTS

the subject at first and at last in verses 17 and
20 marked by the emphatic " Amen, Amen, I
say to you." But, alas ! this thought is crossed
and disturbed by the consciousness that one of this
chosen body is now a treacherous and injurious
enemy. The fact is expressed in words from the forty-
first Psalm. How naturally at all times do the
words of Scripture rise to the lips of Jesus ! There
was a kind of consolation in the familiar sounds
which were records of what others had felt, and
forecasts of what He was feeling. " The Scrip
ture is fulfilled " in his person, not only in the sense
of definite prediction, but also in that of analogous
experience. Thus Jesus connects his own history
with that of Psalmists and Prophets. What was
fulfilled in them and in others like them was with
deeper significance fulfilled in Him. ... So it
was with many other experiences, and so it was
with this, namely, the experience of ingratitude,
falsehood, and treachery, in a favoured companion
taking a wicked advantage in the day of trouble
and aggravating other sorrows. " Also," said the
Psalmist, "the man of my peace, eater of my
bread, lifted the heel against me," in despite or
violence, to spurn or to trample. Every one must
notice that in the citation the words "whom I
trusted " are omitted. It could not be said in this
case by one who " needed not that any should tes-

iv THE DETACHMENT OF JUDAS 77
tify of man, for He knew what was in man." He
was not deceived in Judas ; and He precludes the
thought. " I know whom I chose," — chose (that is)
into the inner circle of companionship and educa
tion for apostolic office ; as it is written, " He
called unto Him his disciples, and from them He
chose twelve, whom also He named Apostles "
(Luke vi. 13), and again, "Did not I choose you
the Twelve " (John vi. 70), and again, He gave
commandments to the Apostles whom He chose
(Acts i. 2). The deeper meaning of election to
life cannot be brought into those sayings, and
scarcely comports with this. Doubtless Judas was
chosen under a divine impulse, and also with rea
sons which would have made the choice natural as
that of a disciple most forward in his adhesion.
It is evident that he had seemed to justify the
appointment as being a useful member of the soci
ety, keeping the bag and managing the affairs.
But under a hypocrisy imposed by that holy fel
lowship, worldliness and falseness were all the
time growing on the man's soul ; and this is the
upshot. All that has gone on has been tending to
this end (as it is tersely said) : " that the Scripture
should be fulfilled, 'He that did eat my bread
has lifted up his heel against me.

' " i

i

' Bishop Perowne, in commenting on Psalm xii., points it out
as an illustration of the construction often to be put on IVo i,
ypaip^i 7rXi)/3U-ii.

78 THE INCIDENTS

Not till the last moment, when it becomes neces
sary to do so, does Jesus reveal his knowledge of
the one exception in the hearts which were open
to his view. Once only, a year before, at a critical
turning-point and under painful experience of de
sertions, He had answered an assurance of faith,
proffered in the name of his disciples, with the
startling words, " Did not I choose you, the Twelve,
and of you one is a devil? " It may be that some
manifestation of the evil mind, at that testing mo
ment, open to his eye, then evoked the expression.
But it was a solitary disclosure of knowledge and
of pain, and no difference of terms or of treatment
attracted the observation of the rest, so that even
in this last scene there was no suggestion of his
being the man intended.
But the time is come when silence must be
broken. "Now," says the Lord («•_-' dpn, from
this moment) " I tell before it comes to pass, that,
when it is come to pass, ye may believe." He
speaks in that considerate care for the disciples
which is part of his "love unto the end." The
discovery, which will be a shock to their feelings,
may also be a shock to their faith, if it should
seem that what was to them unknown and unfore
seen was also unknown and unforeseen to Him.
I speak, He means, to anticipate such thoughts,
and to confirm your hearts in " believing that I
am " (6Vt eyco etyiit). There is no predicate. The

iv THE DETACHMENT OF JUDAS 79
silence means more than any single word could
tell. To those who heard it, the expression was not
unknown (viii. 24, 28, 58). It is not for us to add
limiting explanations ; but here, as bearing on the
faith of Apostles, it includes all that I am towards
you whom I send, and towards those to whom I
send you. Whoever falls, I remain the same, and
so does my commission. The ruin of an Apostle
does not affect the apostleship. " Verily, verily, I
say unto you, He that receiveth whomsoever I send,
receiveth me ; and he that receiveth me receiveth
him that sent me." Those addressed were the
chosen intermediaries, and so the future of the
Church, of the Gospel, and of the salvation of men
was involved in those words.
Two more steps are to be taken before the pain
ful incident is closed by the elimination of the
traitor. A second announcement follows, declar
ing the nature of the act, and then a third, desig
nating the very man ; after which he is gone.
In the scene of the feet washing, we observed
the living touches of vivid memory. Even more
do we observe them here. The details of the inci
dent are before us as spectators of it, or rather as
sharers in it. We receive the impressions of the
moment from gestures and movements, and chang
ing looks, and little tokens of the terms on which
the persons are with each other. We are sensible
of the painful emotion of the Speaker, of the sur-

80 THE INCIDENTS

prise and bewilderment of the hearers, of their
various thoughts and suppositions. How weak is
the effect of many a laboured description compared
with that produced by these brief touches : —
" When Jesus had thus said, he was troubled in the spirit,
and testified, and said, Verily, verily, I say unto you, that
one of you shall betray me. The disciples looked one on
another, doubting of whom he spake. There was at the
table, reclining in Jesus' bosom, one of his disciples, whom
Jesus loved. Simon Peter, therefore, beckoneth to him, and
saith unto him, Tell who it is of whom he speaketh. He,
leaning back, as he was, on Jesus' breast, saith unto him,
Lord, who is it ? Jesus, therefore, answereth, He it is for
whom I shall dip the sop and give it him. So when he had
dipped the sop, he taketh and giveth it to Judas, the son of
Simon Iscariot. And after the sop, then entered Satan into
him. Jesus therefore saith unto him, That thou doest, do
quickly. Now no man at the table knew for what intent
he spake this unto him. For some thought, because Judas
had the bag, that Jesus said unto him, Buy what things we
have need of for the feast, or that he should give something
to the poor. He then, having received the sop, went out
straightway: and it was night" (21-30).
" He was troubled in the spirit " (ex_/)_^ftj reo
7. _e_y_a.-, Kai l^apTvp^o-e), says the disciple who
was close by his side. The look and tone shewed
how strongly the deeper nature was stirred ; and
the words sounded as a solemn testimony. The
Amen, Amen, proper to great principles or reveal
ing utterances, is really wanted here: so incon
ceivable does the statement seem. Can it be meant

THE DETACHMENT OF JUDAS 81

that one of you, my daily companions, who have
watched my works and learned at my lips ; you,
who have adhered when others forsook, who are
now clinging to me in face of a hostile world —
that one of you shall betray me? There was no
doubt what this word intended ; for all knew that
the authorities were watching for an opportunity
to seize and destroy, and that their action was only
arrested by the feeling that prevailed among the
people and the fear of consequences.
The word here employed (7. a/_a_t___ at), to pass
into other hands, is translated sometimes "betray,"
sometimes "deliver" or "deliver up," according
(it appears) as the idea of treachery is or is not
in the mind of the translators. It is a prominent
word throughout these transactions, occurring fif
teen times in this Gospel and often also in the
others. This emphatic repetition offers two sug
gestions. The first is that the delivering up is not
casual, but necessary, or falls, at least, under the
providential fitness of things. The Gentiles have
no power against Jesus till the Jews deliver Him
up. The Jews have no possession of Him till He
is delivered up by a disciple. Is it not part of a
great system of government, under which the power
of evil cannot act effectually till it has found some
starting-point within the inner circle or within the
soul ? ' The other suggestion is that of the self-
abandonment of Him who suffers Himself to be

82 THE INCIDENTS

thus betrayed and delivered. There is no resist
ance, defence, or flight. Men do unto Him "what
ever they list," as He said they would (Matt. xvii.
12). He leaves Himself in their hands when the
hour is come to do so. They take their responsi
bility in what they do ; He fulfils his in what He
suffers. The announcement, now made, sent a shock
and a thrill through the company. We can well
imagine it. The most expressive picture in the
world, though blurred by time, still inspires the
beholder with a sympathetic apprehension of that
experience. The single expression here, which
tells how in doubt and amazement they looked
one on another, is supplemented in the other Gos
pels, where we see them " exceeding sorrowful,"
saying unto Him one by one, Is it I ? and another
saying, Is it I? and pursuing excited questioning
among themselves. In the midst of the agitation,
and while attention is thus distracted, Peter signs
to John, who will know if any one does, and in an
undertone asks (for this is the adopted reading),
" Say who it is of whom he speaks." John, " hav
ing leaned back on to Jesus' breast " (dvaireo-cbv eirl
rb o-rij^o?), looks up and asks, Lord, who is it?
and is answered, He it is for whom I shall dip the
sop and give it to him. There is point here in the
definite article, as in so many other places, where
the Authorised Version has missed it. To dip a sop

iv THE DETACHMENT OF JUDAS 83
is a casual act ; to dip the sop is a customary act,
which has its place in the order of the supper.
The morsel (to -ty-wp,Lov) prepared by the head of
the company was delivered at the proper moment
to one whom he might choose. " We have direct
testimony," says Edersheim (ii. 506), " that about
the time of Christ, the sop which was handed
round consisted of these things wrapped together :
flesh of the Paschal Lamb, a piece of unleavened
bread, and bitter herbs. This, we believe, was the
sop which Jesus, having dipped it for him in the
dish, handed first to Judas, as occupying the first
and chief place at table." By this act, or by a
single word before it, his own question, Rabbi, is it
I? was answered. Now that the supper proceeds
and silence is restored, after Judas has received
the sop, the charge is given him, " What thou doest,
do quickly " ; and immediately he has risen and is
gone, leaving his comrades in innocent speculations
on his errand.
Such is the outward story. Our reflections turn
to the action of the two chief persons in the scene,
the Master and the traitor.
Of the first we can speak only with reverent
reserve. But it is instructive to observe the course
pursued. The treason must be detected and the
man removed ; but there is neither denunciation
nor expulsion. What is necessary is said ; only
what is necessary ; and that only when it is be-

84 THE INCIDENTS

come necessary; yet it serves the purpose. The
Master shews that He is not deceived. The
traitor feels himself discovered, but does not find
himself exposed ; he is warned, but yet left free ;
finally he is detached, though not expelled. He
goes out himself, like those of whom St. John
wrote long afterwards, " They went out from us,
but they were not of us. If -they had been of us,
they would have continued with us; but they
went out that they may be manifest that they all
were not of us " (1 John ii. 19). Thus Judas
dropped away, as a consequence of his own con
dition, and by a kind of natural process, like a
diseased branch in a healthy organism which a
touch is sufficient to sever. At the same time
the disciples are preserved from feelings wliich
would have ill prepared their minds for those pre
cious hours. As it is, they are humbled for them
selves instead of being roused against another. If
criticising mere human action, we should admire
the self-restraint and forbearance, the pity and the
patience, the judgment and the tact, by which
these results were secured. Surely these qual
ities, as they here appear, are as much a part of
the great example, as is that to which St. Peter
directs attention amid the revilings and sufferings
which follow. Had this part of the example been
felt aright, how much denunciation, recrimination,
and invective, how much harsh and hasty treat-

iv THE DETACHMENT OF JUDAS 85
ment, how many expulsions and excommunications,
would have been prevented ? Yes! and if it were
duly felt among ourselves, how much that is said
and done in a like spirit would be prevented now?
The last word has its lesson also, o 7. otet?, 7. 0M7-
o-oy rd^iov (What thou doest, do quickly). It is
a word of dignity and command — command, not
to do the thing, but to do it quickly. In the
Greek a distinction between the deed, as a whole,
and the execution of it, lurks in the two tenses,
in a way that cannot be given in the English.
The deed is all the man's own : that is contained
in " What thou doest " : but it is to be done
"quickly," rd^iov (literally, more quickly), the
comparative form suggesting possible delays which
the speaker will not interpose. He is all the time
master of the situation. And so He is in all
treasons, rebellions, sins ; yet, as here, the initiative,
the choice, the will, all that creates moral respon
sibility, belongs to the agents. They incur and
they must bear it.
From Jesus our thoughts turn to Judas. He
is here" in silence, but for the single question,
which was answered by an act, or by a word in
his ear. Secret are the histories of men's hearts.
One may be sitting among his comrades in total
isolation from them, and in a condition utterly
at variance with seeming and circumstance. So
was it with this man " being one of the Twelve."

THE INCIDENTS

We can but imperfectly estimate a character so
suddenly revealed at last. But peculations from
the common purse and the bargain struck for
money are evidences of worldliness and falseness
in their meanest form, and proofs that his adhesion
as a disciple had been based upon entirely earthly
expectations. He knew not the bond which others
felt : " Lord, to whom shall we go ? Thou hast words
of eternal life." Yet had he ability to suit him
self to his company, to assume its spiritual tone,
and shew like devotion to the Master. That must
have been a habitual and corrupting hypocrisy, by
which, being what he was, he was taken for what
he seemed. Perhaps there was one better pre
pared than the rest for the last discovery. St.
John is charged by M. Renan with a bitter per
sonal enmity to Judas. He was indeed likely to
have some sense of the man's real character. He
had (we see it in his writings) a habit of observing
purposes and motives, and also an instinct in per
ceiving them; and his spiritual turn and pure,
elevated mind might well be sensible of a certain
repugnance to so uncongenial a companion. But
be that as it may, the rest had in general no per
ception of what manner of man Judas was, seeing
in him only such minor faults as they saw in one
another. It is at least remarkable that through
this trying scene, no doubtful attention was spe
cially fixed on him, and that he left the room

rv THE DETACHMENT OF JUDAS 87
followed not by dark suspicions, but by supposi
tions of service or mercy. But what was passing
in his own mind during that searching hour, as
the successive steps of warning and detection
came ever closer to himself? Were there mo
ments of alarm, of hesitation, of relenting, as the
plain words fell on the moral confusion of his
soul? It is probable; but, if there were, they
were set aside ; and then after the last act of
customary kindness there ensued a fuller posses
sion by the power to whose suggestions he had
yielded before. " After the sop Satan entered into
him." That is no figure of speech ; it is simple,
awful truth. It is a revelation of the terrible fact
which lies behind the darkest, strangest parts
of human history. Such a revelation is proper
to this supreme moment, and to the commence
ment of the story of the greatest crime of the
world. Thus possessed, the man could no longer
continue in that holy presence. It was a relief to
hear the word, and to escape into the dark. " He
went immediately out, — and it was night " —
night indeed, — on the earth and in his soul; and
there will be another going out into a darker
night on the morrow.
"From all evil and mischief, from sin, from the crafts
and assaults of the devil, from thy wrath, and from ever
lasting damnation,
" Good Lord deliver us."

88 THE INCIDENTS

CHAPTER V
THE PRELIMINARY SAYINGS
Judas is gone; and the situation is changed.
Within the upper room the atmosphere is cleared ;
without, the work of death is in hand.
By his departure the company of the disciples is
cleansed. With the bad man a bad principle and
a bad influence went out. He concentrated and
represented, in his own person, the earthly dreams
and false ideas of the Kingdom, which in the others
mingled with higher thoughts, and he must, have
been a power to promote the worldly spirit among
them, and with it those dispositions which the Lord
was ever seeking to eradicate. He now becomes
himself an example of what that spirit may pro
duce. In his person this old leaven is purged out,
that the residue may be clean for the Master's use.
In them, notwithstanding their infirmities and mis
takes, He now sees only " the unleavened things of
sincerity and truth."
In consequence, a weight is lifted from the heart
of Jesus. The repression of feelings and restraint
of words which that false presence caused are over

v THE PRELIMINARY SAYINGS 89
now. He can speak without those reservations
which truth has hitherto demanded. All his affec
tion can flow forth without reserve, and all his
proposed communications can be freely made to
his own, whom He loves to the end.
But Judas is gone to his work. While that holy
converse proceeds in the room which he has left,
he is hastening to his malignant employers, telling
them that now, this night, he can fulfil his engage
ment, asking for a sufficient body of men for the pur
pose ; seeing them assemble with lanterns, torches,
and weapons ; and giving them the directions to
which they are to attend. His departure is the
beginning of the end ; and it is under the con
sciousness that the die is cast, and the passion
virtually begun, that the Lord devotes the time
remaining to that confidential converse with the
disciples, which is to become his last will and
testament to the Church.
The Apostle whom Jesus loved is specially en
trusted with that will and testament ; and delivers
it, in this record, to all generations. Thus he be
gins : —
" When, therefore, he was gone out, Jesus saith, Now is
the Son of man glorified, and God is glorified in him ; and
God shall glorify him in himself, and straightway shall he
glorify him.
" Little children, yet a little while T am with you. Ye shall
seek me : and, as I said unto the Jews, whither I go, ye can
not come ; so now I say to you.

90 THE INCIDENTS

" A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one
another; even as I have loved you, that ye also love one
another. By this shall all men know that ye are my dis
ciples, if ye have love one to another " (31-35).
We cannot tell whether these three sayings
were uttered in immediate succession. They may
have been spoken while the supper was proceed
ing, and other incidents have occurred between
them, even the Institution of the Sacrament itself.
But we have to study them as they here appear.
They are divided from the discourse which they
introduce, by Peter's personal question and pro
testation ; and it is well to take them apart, as
they supply a general preface to all that will fol
low. They reveal the true character of what is
passing, as the glorification of the Son of Man.
They announce the consequent separation from the
disciples, who are left behind in the world. They
deliver the new commandment, which is the law of
their future life. I.
" When therefore he was gone out," says the
writer (as meaning that an obstacle was now re
moved and an occasion come), then the concen
trated thoughts found vent. The first saying is
mysterious and sublime, being a revelation of the
true character of the history of the Son of Man.

THE PRELIMINARY SAYINGS 91
It has been justly observed that " this title is the
key to the interpretation of the passage. The
words are spoken of the relation of the Son of Man
to God, and not of the relation of ' the Son ' to ' the
Father'" (Westcott). What is the character of
this history? It is given in a single word. Four
times is the verb "glorify" repeated — twice as in
terpreting the past, twice as anticipating the future ;
the two periods being distinguished by the tenses
employed (eho^do-Orj-ho^daet). Of the first period
it is said : " Now was the Son of Man glorified and
God was glorified in Him." He reviews the past,
which is, however, still the present, though " now "
at its very end. It was a history of humiliation,
but of glorification shining through it. So it ap
peared in review: " We beheld his glory, glory as
of the only begotten from the father." The glory
was manifested in miracle, as He spake concerning
the crowning miracle : " This sickness is not unto
death, but for the glory of God, that the Son of
God may be glorified thereby." That was one
side of the glorification, but this is another : The
Son of God was glorified in power, the Son of Man
in suffering. How was that? It scarcely needs
explaining. If we account man to be glorified not
by robes, and titles, and applauses, and splendid
surroundings, but by great principles vindicated,
great services rendered, and great benefits pro
cured, and by the qualities exhibited in achieving

92 THE INCIDENTS

these results, and by the labours and sacrifices
endured in achieving them ; if we account the
martyr glorified in his death rather than in his
canonisation, and the conqueror in the battle and
the victory rather than in his triumph — • if this is
our way of thinking, we shall know in what sense
the Son of Man was glorified, and how truly the
glorification was being accomplished when the
words broke from his lips.
At the same time, in man this glorification only
attains its true character when it is recognised
in relation to God, and when the words can be
added, " and God is glorified in him." Here this
is spoken in the fullest, highest sense.. God, in
respect of wisdom and power, is manifested in
nature : " The heavens declare the glory of God."
In respect of truth and righteousness, holiness
and love, He is manifested in the moral being,
and now at last really and adequately in the Son
of Man. This is " the glory of God in the face of
Jesus Christ" (2 Cor. iv. 6). God is manifested
in the person and the life: "He that hath seen
Me hath seen the Father." He is manifested also
in the work : " God was in Christ, reconciling the
world unto Himself " (2 Cor. v. 19). Seeing as we
do now what the power of that personality has
proved, what that life originated, and what that
death procured, we read the true history of Jesus
on earth in the words: "The Son of Man was
glorified, and God was glorified in Him."

THE PRELIMINARY SAYINGS 93
But this history on earth is a part of a larger
history which has its next scene in heavenly
places. It must be so ; and the necessity of this
consequence found expression in the reading fol
lowed in the Authorised Version, which has the
words, "if God be glorified in Him." But this
brief argument, which indeed need not to be
stated, is disallowed by the better reading, and,
as Westcott points out, it mars the symmetry of
the saying, which he prints thus : —
" Now was glorified the Son of Man,
And God was glorified in Him;
And God shall glorify Him in Himself,
A nd straightway shall He glorify Him."
In regard to the first statement, exposition was
free, because that is an account of what took place
on earth ; but before the second statement expo
sition is silent, since the glorification intended
transcends human observation, and is part of the
mystery of "taking the manhood into God." The
word " in Himself " refers not to the Son of Man,
but to God, even as it is said in the prayer, "And
now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own
self." It is well expressed in Plummer's note,
"As God is glorified in the Messianic work of
the Son, so the Son shall be glorified in the eter
nal blessedness of the Father " ; though the prepo
sition may be taken to imply the unity in nature

94 THE INCIDENTS

as well as in blessedness. Furthermore, it is said
that this great change is close at hand, "and
straightway shall He glorify Him." So it proved
after three days, when very early in the morning
was " Jesus raised up from the dead by the glory
of the Father"; and then the day came when He
was received up and "made to sit at the right
hand in the heavenly places, far above all rule
and authority, and power and dominion, and every
name that is named not only in this world, but
also in that which is to come " (Eph. i. 20, 21).
Fitly do these words precede the communica
tions of love. Though far above the intelligence
of the hearers at -the moment, and uttered in the
way of soliloquy rather than as addressed to them,
the words reveal for future apprehension the true
history of the Son of Man ; they throw the shadow
of their majesty over the discourses which follow,
and form the whole groundwork of the concluding
prayer. II
Clear as is the Lord's consciousness concerning
Himself, it does not absorb his thoughts, so as to
divert them from his present interest in his own
who are before Him. These short hours are dedi
cated to them. The glorification, on the verge of
which He stands, involves the close of the human
companionship. That must now be understood.

v THE PRELIMINARY SAYINGS 95
The truth of the separation must be wrought into
their minds by words which cannot be mistaken.
The majesty and mystery of the former saying
make more impressive the tenderness and plain
ness of this : —
" Little children, yet a little while I am with you. Ye
shall seek me : and as I said unto the Jews, Whither I go,
ye cannot come ; so now I say unto you " (33).
He had said the last words to the Jews, while Pie
taught in the Temple, and they were hovering
round with malicious intention when "his hour
was not yet come." To them He had said, " I go
away ; and ye shall seek me, and shall die in your
sin. Whither I go ye cannot come " (viii. 21).
The same fact is announced, but in what different
connexion, and with what different feeling! In
the one case it is announced to enemies, whose
seeking will be perplexed unbelief; in the other,
to children whose seeking will be a longing of the
heart. " Ye shall not find Me " is not repeated
here ; for there will be a finding, not conceivable
as yet, the promise of which will be given in the
consolations and revelations to follow. But these
themselves rest upon the fact, " Whither I go ye
cannot come."
The spirit of those communications breathes
already in the tender word of address, and in the
tone that almost sounds like regret : " Little chil-

THE INCIDENTS

dren, yet a little while I am with you." A word
never used before betrays the special feeling of
the moment. Twice had pitying kindness been
expressed by the word retcvov : " Child, thy sins be
forgiven thee " (Mark ii. 5) ; " Children, how hard
it is for them that trust in riches to enter into the
kingdom of God" (Mark x. 25). But here, for
once, the word is used in the diminutive form, ex
pressive of affectionate compassion," parental solic
itude, and the intimacies of domestic life. Our
English has no graceful equivalent, and can only
resort to the more cumbrous form of " little chil
dren." The address, as all must observe, dwelt on
the mind of St. John like the rest of the language
of these sacred hours. It occurs seven times in
his epistle, and is connected by tradition with his
latest ministry as a voice of parental affection and
apostolic anxiety for the churches over which he
presided. Thus has the impending departure and the con
sequent separation been tenderly as well as plainly
told, giving to all that follows the character of
parting words and a loving farewell.

Ill

The departure must create a new situation, to
which new provisions belong, and that which occurs
first arises naturally from the absence of the Head

v THE PRELIMINARY SAYINGS 97
and Centre of the family. Its members, hitherto
united by their common nearness to his person, must
henceforth be united by love to each other. How
easily amongst those eleven men might jealousies
engender alienation, and differences end in divis
ion! and where then would be the work for which
they were gathered into one body ? All know how
these natural tendencies have been illustrated, not
only in the world but in the Church. Therefore
shall the duty of mutual love be bound upon them
with the authority of a new commandment, the
Lord's own love to them supplying both its motive
and its measure. This shall be the essential
character of true discipleship, and the sign which
shall attest it to the world.
"A new commandment I give unto you, that ye love one
another : even as I have loved you, that ye also love one
another. By this shall all men know that ye are my dis
ciples, if ye have love one to another" (34, 35).
The commandment is addressed to the men there
present, with an appeal to memories of love which
had become part of themselves. But it is also ad
dressed to them as representative disciples, re
ceivers and transmitters of teaching given for all,
and Christians recognise the new commandment
as the supreme and universal law of the Gospel of
Christ. Certainly it was not wholly new, as never
heard before ; and the word employed implies rather
freshness than novelty. But as certainly it was

THE INCIDENTS

not the characteristic of the Law. It had ho prom
inent place among the old commandments. Once,
at the close of various prohibitions of harsh and
unjust actions, it occurs as bearing on the heart
and takes us almost by surprise by its warm and
comprehensive words : " Thou shalt not hate thy
brother in thine heart . . . Thou shalt not take
vengeance, nor bear any grudge against the chil
dren of thy people, but thou shalt love thy neigh
bour as thyself. I am the Lord " (Lev. xix. 17, 18).
Thoughtful minds discerned its importance and
ranged it with the first and great commandment
— the great Sh'ma, as it was called (Luke x. 27).
The newness of the commandment as given by
the Lord is justly ascribed by commentators to the
new motive (as I have loved you), and the new
standard and character of love which this motive
involves. It is an admirable expression in Plum-
mer's note, which compares the Christian principle
described (1 Cor. xiii.) with " the measured benev
olence of the Pentateuch." But beyond this new
ness of motive and measure, there is also a newness
of predominance. The principle which lurked in
the old dispensation takes the leading place in the
new. Comprehending all the commandments of
prohibition (for love worketh no ill to his neigh
bour) it rises to another level in generous largeness
and moral splendour. It is not in the letter, but in
the spirit, the reigning principle in a new life.

THE PRELIMINARY SAYINGS

For that new life, all that is passing now is the
introduction : all that is taught is the preparation.
At this very Passover the type is fulfilled ; and in
the accomplishment of redemption, the old things
pass away and all things become new. Close on
the delivery of the new commandment was in
augurated the new covenant by the institution of
its seal and sacrament and by the words : " This is
my blood of the covenant " (Matt. xxvi. 28) ;
" This cup is the new covenant in my blood, that
which is poured out for you" (Luke xxii. 20).
So Moses had spoken when he sprinkled the people
with the blood of sacrifice, " Behold the blood of
the covenant which the Lord hath made with you "
(Ex. xxiv. 8), and the tacit reference to those
words declared the substitution of the new cove
nant for the old. As, therefore, " a law of com
mandments contained in ordinances " was attached
to the one, so the law of love written in the heart
is the congenial attendant on the other. This law
will be again impressed in the discourse which
follows; and it involves, also, the need of the
gift which will then be promised. The mind of
Christ must be formed by the spirit of Christ, and
so the new commandment becomes the law of the
new life.

100 THE INCIDENTS

CHAPTER VI
THE PREMONITION TO PETER
Of the sayings thus cast into the hearts of the
disciples, one would at the time naturally absorb
their thoughts. A revelation to faith and a com
mandment of duty may await reflection; but an
impending departure and an indefinite separation
give no room for other thoughts. As it is said
afterwards, " Because I have spoken these things
to you, sorrow hath filled your hearts." As usual,
there was one to speak for the others, and, as was
his wont, with a sort of questioning resistance,
and the impetuosity of personal feeling.
"Simon Peter saith unto him, Lord, whither goest thou?
Jesus answered, Whither I go, thou canst not follow me
now; but thou shalt follow afterwards. Peter saith unto
him, Lord, why cannot I follow thee, even now? I will
lay down my life for thee. Jesus answereth, Wilt thou lay
down thy life for me? Verily, verily, I say unto thee, The
cock shall not crow, till thou hast denied me thrice"
(36-38). The passage is a part of the dramatic picture
of St. Peter to which this Gospel contributes so

vi THE PREMONITION TO PETER 101
much, and of which such living touches were given
but a few lines before. The identity in all the
Gospels of this highly individual personality is
one of the links between the four records, an evi
dence of the common memory which pervades
them. The study of that character and the lessons
to be derived from it lie outside the present pur
pose ; and they are so often and so amply treated
in sermons and expositions that there is no tempta
tion to step aside to consider them. Either now
or at an earlier moment, it appears that more was
said than is written here, of Satan claiming to sift
the disciples, of prayer for Peter's endangered
faith, of a change that would come over him, and
of his becoming a strengthener to his brethren.
Thus comfort was given before the sad prediction
which vain self-confidence drew forth. And yet
another word of hope is not forgotten in the
present report. "Whither I go, thou canst not
follow me now," — thou art not called to do it ;
and thou canst not ; thy faith and purpose are too
weak, — " but thou shalt follow afterwards." In a
few hours was fulfilled the prediction, "Thou
shalt deny me thrice." More than thirty years
later, the other words must have been present with
power in the days of martyrdom. And later still,
did St. John record them here, as also others of
like import, in his closing chapter, remembering
how they had been fulfilled in that death upon a

102 THE INCIDENTS

cross in which his dearly loved friend had followed
his Master, and "glorified God" (xxi. 18, 19).
Such personal feeling may naturally have
prompted the repetition of this incident recorded
by the other Evangelists, and here with the addi
tion of words which they had omitted. But there
was also a reason proper to St. John's purpose for
mentioning the predictive notice of the denial by
Peter, as well as that of the betrayal by Judas.
It lies in his care to show at every step the Lord's
foresight of all that should come to pass, especially
all that would more immediately affect his own
little company. It was the foresight of love,
which, knowing all that was in them, provided
against the effect of future shocks to their faith.
But besides such reasons for the interposition of
this brief dialogue, there is reason enough in its
effect at the time and its bearing on what was to
follow. What a humbling word was this ! What
a blow to self-confidence ! What a check to the
eager impulses of profession ! No wonder that
the disciple, often spokesman for the rest, now
speaks no more. We feel it a touch of truth in
the narrative that the silence so unnatural to him
is thus accounted for. And the word which struck
home to him must have told upon them all, making
them more grave and reverent listeners to the
communications which followed. Thus does this
last incident complete the prefatory facts, so

vi THE PREMONITION TO PETER 103
making the first part of the present exposition
conterminous with the 13th chapter of the Gospel.
The place of the warning to Peter in this narra
tive suggests some observations on the harmony
with the record of the same incident in the other
Gospels. Here it is given in the room, followed
by longer discourse, and some time before the call,
"Arise, let us go hence." The remark that has
been made on the effect of it confirms the truth of
that position. St. Luke's witness is on this point
the same. But St. Matthew and St. Mark men
tion it after the departure, as if on the way to
Gethsemane. They do not, however, assert that
it took place then ; and it is frequent with them
to mention facts in the order of idea, rather than
of succession in time. The supposition of some
commentators that there was recurrence to the
subject on the road is not at all unreasonable. It
was certainly a subject to which a man would be
likely enough to recur as soon as he recovered
heart to do so ; and some further words may have
passed then which connected the memory of the
warning with the later moment.
The general question of the harmony of the
record, on which we comment with the story of
the same hours in the synoptic gospels, is not
within the present purpose. We may, however,
be sure that many words were uttered that even
ing besides those which were in line with St.

104 THE INCIDENTS

John's intention of didactic report; and in many
of the words recorded elsewhere, we recognise
points of contact with his narrative, and in all of
them a perfect harmony with the spirit of it.
On the chief feature in the three records, the
Institution of the Eucharist, St. John is silent;
and the reader can scarcely pass on without some
notice of that silence, some question as to the place
in his narrative to which the act should be as
signed, some consideration of the relation between
the Institution, which has no place in these pages,
and the teaching which it is their part to give.
The silence of the Gospel on this point has
some evidential and some evangelical value. It is
inconceivable that any later writer, aiming to get
his version of things accepted as the work of the
beloved Apostle, should have omitted from his
account of the last evening the act which origi
nated the central ordinance of the Church, and
which consecrated that evening in the thoughts
of all his readers. St. John being recognised as
the author, this total silence on a subject, on
which it is impossible to suppose want of informa
tion, or of recollection, or of appreciation, must
affect our judgment on other instances of omission
in regard to which such causes might possibly be
imagined, and consequently our interpretation of
the entire Gospel, in respect of its selection of
topics and its treatment of them with a purpose.

vi THE PREMONITION TO PETER 105
On the question of the place in this narrative
to which the Institution should be assigned, little
can be said because assistance is so small. That
place certainly lies within the range of the thir
teenth chapter, before continuous discourse begins.
The Institution occurred in the supper while they
were eating (eadtovTav avTtov, Mark xiv. 22), and
must have been at the close of it, both as forming
a succession to the paschal meal, and from its own
solemn character ; moreover, it is mentioned that
it was " a cup after supper," as distinguished from
the previous cup, in regard to which the conse
crating words were spoken. It was therefore
probably after the giving of the sop and the de
parture, and would then fall somewhere near to
the last verses of the chapter ; I should say at the
very end of it, were it not that the warning to
Peter is placed in all three synoptic gospels after
the Institution. This consideration may incline
us to place it as probably occurring after the first
of the preliminary sayings (v. 32), or after the last
of them (v. 35). The remembrance of the an
nouncement of impending separation might well
have dwelt on the mind of St. Peter, as the sub
ject to which he would recur as soon as there was
occasion to speak. Anyhow, there must have been
a close proximity between these two features of
the last evening, the Institution recorded in the
other Gospels, and the Discourses reported by

106 THE INCIDENTS

St. John. But the relation between them consists
not in nearness of time, but in community of ideas
and feelings. The condensed significance of the
Institution finds in many respects an expanded
expression in the Discourses.
This correspondence may appear less obvious
because the primary significance of the Sacrament
is not reproduced in the teaching. Whoever asks
the question, "Why was the Sacrament of the
Lord's Supper ordained? " must receive the direct
reply, " For the continual remembrance of the sac
rifice of the death of Christ." But in the Dis
courses there is no teaching of sacrifice and no
insistence upon death. The consciousness of death
is present, and the character and effects of it are
intimated, though not explained. It is a glorifica
tion of the Son of Man, and a glorification of God
in Him (xiii. 31). It is an act of beneficent love,
a "laying down of life for his friends" (xv. 13).
But how it glorifies God, and how it benefits men,
remains in the Lord's consciousness and is latent
in these communications. In the Institution the
truth is secured for ever in the words, " My body
which is given, my blood which is shed for you
and for many for the remission of sins." But it
does not reappear in the Discourses preserved by
this Evangelist. Yet is he the same writer who
loves to dwell on that death as the propitiation for
the sins of the whole world, and on that blood as

vi THE PREMONITION TO PETER 107
redeeming us to God and cleansing us from all sin.
But the fidelity of the reporter is not affected by
subsequent knowledge. Those who were then
addressed must witness the redeeming act as a
fact before they can understand it as a power.
That is part of the teaching, not given, but prom
ised : " I have many things to say unto you, but
ye cannot bear them now. Howbeit when he the
Spirit of truth is come, he shall guide you into all
the truth." Meantime the anguish of the morrow
is not suffered to confuse and darken the sweet
confidences of the evening. Here death is thought
of, not as constituting sacrifice, but only as entail
ing separation. The fellowship that has been has
reached its end, and the words are addressed to
the natural feelings. of the moment, yet revealing
the true relations which will endure when the
transitory relations are over.
Plence it is that, in one chief respect, the Dis
courses do not correspond to the Institution,
inasmuch as they say nothing of sacrifice, obla
tion, and satisfaction for sin, scarcely even of
death. They pass beyond it into the succeeding
relations between Christ and his people. Of these
relations the Sacrament was to be a means and
a pledge, and it is in respect of them that we
observe the living connection between the Insti
tution and the Discourses.
Is the Sacrament intensely personal in its refer-

108 THE INCIDENTS

ence as concentrating the mind on Jesus Christ
Himself ("my body, my blood, my memorial")?
So are the Discourses occupied with the same
thoughts of immediate relations with Him. Is
the Sacrament felt as a perpetual token of love .
appealing for reciprocal affections in the words
" Given for you ; shed for you ; do this in remem
brance of me " ? So are the Discourses a contin
uous utterance of the same feelings, and a claim for
the like returns. Does the Sacrament express an
intimate union with Christ by participation in
his body and blood, — a union not passing in the
momentary act, but abiding in the condition
which it seals, one in which we dwell in Him,
and He in us, we are one with Him, and He with
us ? These last expressions are themselves derived
from the Discourses which teach an incorporation
into Christ, an inherence in Him, a derivation of
life from Him as of branches abiding in the vine,
yet an abiding which needs a concurrence of the
will, and calls for the charge which would secure
it, " Abide in me, and I in you " ? Is the Sacra
ment the testimony and seal of a new covenant
(" this cup is the new covenant in my blood "),
and, therefore, the perpetual celebration of a new
dispensation? So do the Discourses present the
characteristics of that new covenant in the "new
commandment," the new ground laid for prayer
and communion with God, and above all in the

vi THE PREMONITION TO PETER 109
new gift of the Holy Ghost the Comforter. Fi
nally, is the Sacrament an ordinance of fellowship
and an act of communion by the participants one
with another, and so with the whole Church? So
«re the Discourses addressed to men not only as
individuals, but as members of a company bound
together by the common relation to their Lord,
and by the commandment to love one another as
He had loved them.
These are living correspondences between the
Institution and the Discourses. In all these re
spects the Sacrament incorporates the teaching,
and the teaching explains the Sacrament; and in
this, as in so many other ways, St. John completes
the synoptic record.

Part II
THE DISCOURSES
FIRST DISCOURSE
XIV. 1-31
CHAPTER I. Method and Character
II. The Foundation Word . . . . _. 1
III. The Final Prospect  2,3
IV. Selp-Revelation  4-11
V. Promise op Power  12-14
VI. Promise op the Paraclete . . . 15-24
VII. Promise op Teaching  25, 26
VIII. Benediction op Peace  27
IX. The Accepted End  28-31
X. A Dividing- Line  31

111

Part II
THE DISCOURSES
CHAPTER I
METHOD AND CHARACTER
Before entering on the Discourses, it may be
of use if we make some prefatory observations on
the division of them, on their method or manner
of delivery, and on their aim in relation to the
hearers. 1. It is common to treat the three sayings (xiii.
31-35) as the commencement of the Discourses.
Certainly they indicate that after the departure of
Judas there is a new situation, one that will admit
of more free and confidential communication, and
they go far to define the situation both for Jesus
and for his disciples. They shew three leading
thoughts occupying the mind of the Speaker,
which will make themselves felt throughout the
Discourses, and be more distinctly resumed in the
final Prayer. Yet are they rather preludes than
commencements, utterances which give vent to the
i 113

114 THE DISCOURSES chap.
feelings, sudden jets from the fountain before the
stream begins to flow ; and that outflow is stayed
for a moment by the interruption of Peter. His
question, unlike those of the others which assist
the course of teaching, diverges from it by taking
a turn personal to himself, and this draws a line of
division, creating a new commencement for the
teaching which continues through the three fol
lowing chapters.
We speak of this teaching as given in discourses
rather than in a discourse, though the report has a
continuous aspect as if no division had occurred.
The division, indeed, is narrow, consisting but of
three words, "Arise, let-us-go hence" (xiv. 31);
but that is sufficient. Moreover, the discourse
given in chapter xiv. has a kind of formal comple
tion by a benediction of peace, and a repetition of
the consoling words with which it began, "Let
not your heart be troubled." Again, there is a
difference of tone in the two stages of teaching,
both indeed being revelation on the relations of
Christ with his own, but the first marked by a
predominant purpose of consolation, the second
by one of instruction. Accordingly, the first dis
course takes more account of the feelings of the
disciples and of the questions then in their minds,
while the second occupies an anticipatory stand
point after the promised reunion, in the life and
history of the dispensation which would follow.

i METHOD AND CHARACTER 115
It suits with these differences, that the discourse
in chapter xiv. is a prolongation of the converse at
the table customary at the paschal meal, and nat
urally begins with a certain amount of dialogue ;
while that in the two following chapters supposes
the hearers in some other position, and in an atti
tude of silent attention, save for some whispered
words among themselves at a pause in the dis
course or at its close, and one common voice of
confession responsive to the last revealing word.
This return to a partial form of dialogue forms a
sequel to the whole, and has the effect of riveting
the words of consummation more immediately on
the minds of the hearers. M. Godet concludes
his arrangement of the chapters in respect of the
order of sequence corresponding to the actual situ
ation by an illustration which occurs very natu
rally, and which some of the Lord's own words
suggest. "So a dying father, after gathering his children round
him, begins by speaking to them of his end, and of the time
which will immediately follow. Then the perspective of
their future career opens out before his thoughts, and he
tells them what the world will be to them, and what they
will have to do in it; after which his mind falls back upon
the actual situation, and draws from its depth a supreme
word and a last farewell " (vol. ii. p. 453).
2. Within these divisions are the smaller sec
tions, created by succession of topics, which will

116 THE DISCOURSES chap.
be more usefully treated by taking them singly as
they occur, without any preparatory attempt to
analyse the method pursued. The attempt indeed
would be in the face of difficulties ; for the char
acter of discourse is not obviously methodical.
Method, it may be said, there is none. That
is the confessed embarrassment of commentators
and analysers. " This current of discourse," says
Spier, " poured forth by the departing Saviour for
future remembrance and glorification by the spirit,
remains still inexhaustible for our poor under
standings, and far transcends the common laws of
our so-called logical order of thought" (vi. 175).
It presents, says Vinet, " a divine confusion." Dr.
Sanday gives a more precise account of this ex
pression in his " Authorship of the Fourth Gospel."
" We cannot but recognise a change from the compact
lucid addresses and exposition of the syuoptists. This
appears not so much in single verses as when we look at the
discourse as a whole. In all the synoptic gospels, imper
fectly as they are put together, there is not a single dis
course which could be called involved iu its structure; and
yet I do not see how it is possible to refuse this epithet to
this discourse as given by St. John. The different subjects
are not kept apart, but are continually crossing and entan
gling one another. The later subjects are anticipated in the
course of the earlier; the earlier return in the later. For
instance, the description of the functions of the Paraclete
is broken up into five fragments. The relation of the
Church and the world is intersected just in the same way,
besides scattered references in single verses" (pp. 231, 232).

i METHOD and CHARACTER 117
This characteristic is acutely noted and worthy
to be pointed out ; and when we are thinking of
the synoptics and St. John, may lead to certain
inferences from their different styles as reporters.
But when we feel ourselves listening to the words
of the Lord Jesus, such observations are sugges
tive in another way. This " divine confusion "
makes us feel that we are not hearing a discourse
on " the functions of the Paraclete," or on " the
relations to the world," or on any definite subject ;
but listening to a living voice speaking, as it is
natural to speak, under the impulse of intense
sympathy at an agitating crisis, and to hearts that
are filled with sorrow. Either St. John is an in
imitable artist in his power of realising the feeling
of the situation, or he is the true reporter of act
ual words which fastened on his memory because
they lived in his heart. My contention is that
under the circumstances the defect of method is
the perfectness of truth; that these adaptations
of thought to feeling, these transitions from one
topic to another, these recurrences to the same
truths in different applications of them to the
needs of the heart, are simply natural to the sit
uation, and proper to the character of intercourse
which it would produce. An orderly exposition
of the truths delivered, a clear arrangement of the
communications made (however convenient to the
commentator or lecturer), could not have had

118 THE DISCOURSES chap.
the same effect on the hearers at the time, and
would have impaired the living impression which
these communications make upon us now. We
should have been placed in a different mental
attitude, in which something might perhaps have
been gained for the mind, but something would
certainly have been lost for the heart.
Such a manner of communication as this neces
sarily obscures the method of it ; but the method
is there, and under the varying movements of
feeling we shall trace a continuous connexion of
thought. The sense of this has grown upon the
mind of the writer in the consecutive study of
these discourses ; and he entertains the hope that
in the mind of the reader a like effect may follow.
3. For a true apprehension of this teaching, one
principle must be ever kept in view ; namely, its
adaptation to the mental condition of the hearers
at that crisis of their spiritual history. For them
one great period is ending, and a different dispen
sation will ensue. Under the past manifestation
of Christ they have reached a level of faith, from
which they must now rise to a greater elevation ;
and the results of the past are either assumed, or
claimed, as qualifying for the discoveries of the
future. On the one side, we have such words as
these, " Whither I go ye know, and the way ye
know." — "Have I been so long time with you,
and yet hast thou not known me?" — "Believe

i METHOD AND CHARACTER 119
me, that I am in the Father, and the Father in
me ; or else believe me for the very work's sake."
— " The world knoweth not the spirit of truth ;
but ye know him." — "I am the vine ; ye are the
branches." — " Now ye are clean through the word
which I have, spoken to you." —"Ye have loved
me and believed that I came forth from God."
Throughout, their faith, love, and knowledge are
counted as real ; and their union with their Lord
and severance from the world are recognised as
facts. Yet the imperfection of their attainments is also
plain, evinced by their own poor questions and
noted by sad reproofs. But, with these deduc
tions, it is a real level of faith, no doubt attained
more fully by some than by others.
On the other hand, it is the aim of the Teacher
to lift them above it, and prepare them for far
higher gifts and experiences, proper to the day
which is about to dawn. "In that day ye shall
know," "In that day ye shall ask," in another
way and with other effects than now. Then
the departing will be found to be only a nearer
coming, and the separation a closer union, and
the seeing no more a true and constant beholding.
Then another Paraclete will have come, with
greater power and clearer discoveries and teach
ings of all the truth, such as, at the time then
present, they were not able to bear. Thus the

120 THE DISCOURSES chap.
passage is prepared from faith begun in the flesh
to faith made perfect in the Spirit, from the
external to the internal manifestation of Christ,
and from confused materials of thought and dim
apprehensions of truth, to the full apostolic
illumination. But the audience is larger than appears. In
the foreground are the Eleven, behind them the
universal Church. The words are addressed im
mediately to the men then present, and meet the
feelings of the moment as simply and naturally as
if there were no thought beyond. Yet do they
lay broad foundations of faith for all, and provide ¦
for manifold experiences in all generations. And
this is not in the way of accidental consequence
or ingenious application. It results necessarily
from the personality of the Speaker and the char
acter of the hearers.
The Speaker is the Son of Man, acting in
contingent circumstances, and conversing with
individual persons, but embracing in the vastness
of divine intention the whole race of mankind.
Hence it is that a wonderful combination of the
personal and immediate with the universal and
perpetual distinguishes all the words of Jesus,
and pre-eminently those wliich are here. It is a
feature to be reckoned among the tokens of the
true humanity and true divinity of Him who thus
speaks : " Vox hominem sonat." It is a voice

i METHOD AND CHARACTER 121
intensely human in its tones of sympathy and
affection ; yet in revelation and authority no less
distinctly divine.
The hearers are men like ourselves, but they are
representative men; dear to tlieir Lord iri their
own persons, as his tender language shows ; pre
cious also in his sight, as representing all "who
shall believe on Him through their word." Those
whom Jesus teaches have thereby an intermediary
office. They are receivers, but also conductors, of
the electric currents of truth. Testimonies and
instructions, warnings and reproofs, consolations
and promises, take hold of those who are addressed,
but they pass on with unspent force, for they are
spoken, not merely to Jews and Galileans, but to
the world ; not merely to the Twelve, but to the
Church. If this characteristic belongs to other
communications, how much more to these, which
are the last, which close the teaching in the flesh,
which directly contemplate the day that is to fol
low — that day which began when Jesus was glori
fied, and which endures till He comes again. We
know how, at its commencement, the words of
promise were fulfilled to the commissioned teachers
of the Church, for we have the development of
Christian doctrine in their Epistles. We know
that the main lines of faith and worship in the
Church have their starting-point in these pregnant
sayings, from the opening word, "Ye believe in

122 THE DISCOURSES chap.
God, believe also in Me," to the last appointment
of the name in which we are to pray. We know
how naturally, in all ages, believing hearts have
turned to these words in experiences which needed
assurances most felt to be divine, in the saddest,
the loftiest, the last hours of life. We know how
instinctively the reader opens at these pages when
there is special need of consolation and support, of
detachment from the world, of the sense of the
presence and love of Christ, and of the clearer
sight of the Father's house beyond. And why is
this? Certainly on account of the words them
selves ; but also from the feelings awakened by
the voice which utters them. It is the voice of
Jesus prolonged through all ages, as fresh to-day
in the congregation or the sick-chamber as it was
then in the upper room in Jerusalem. These chap
ters are like the late-invented instrument which
can silently preserve and vocally give forth the
very tones and accents of one who speaks on earth
no more.

THE FOUNDATION WORD 123

CHAPTER II
THE FODNDATION WORD
xiv. 1
We enter the 14th chapter and listen to the
first discourse. It is a voice of consolation. It is
a voice of revelation. The Lord reveals in order
to console. There is no ground of consolation in
the present. That can only be found in revelation
of the future. But He consoles in order to reveal ;
for the light which these parting words throw upon
things to come, not only meets the needs of the
occasion, but is meant to illuminate all ages of the
Church. There is no change in the scene. All are still
reclining at the table, prolonging the companion
ship of the supper. The most forward speaker
among the disciples is now silent, humbled and
stricken to the heart. Others, while the Lord pro
ceeds, can interpose as they will the questions
which arise in their minds. These interpositions
do not turn aside the drift of the discourse. They
assist it, by expressing the feelings which the dis
course intends to meet. All eyes are fixed on the

124 THE DISCOURSES chap.
Speaker, watching for words which may relieve the
sad perplexity. It is all so mysterious. Such
strange, sad things have been spoken. Some ter
rible event is at hand. One will betray ; another
deny. A dark cold shadow is falling upon them.
Is it the shadow of death? Anyhow, He is mak
ing a farewell. He will go ; they know not
whither ; but are told they cannot follow. Is the
revelation of the Father closed? Is the world to
be left unconvinced, and, as it would seem, vic
torious? There is a confused sense of an aban
doned work, an undertaking that fails, a history
ending when it seemed about to begin. There is a
dull feeling of inexplicable, inconceivable disap
pointment. In fact, a few hours will render it
overwhelming. It is not only a sad, but a danger
ous time. Love is unchanged ; but faith begins to
tremble. With full knowledge of all that is in
their hearts, the Lord looks round on the perturbed
and anxious countenances directed towards Him,
waiting for explanation and relief. " Let not," He
says, "your hearts be troubled; ye believe in God,
believe also in me." The first sentence expresses
desire to console; the second intimates intention
to reveal. So is given the keynote to all that will
follow. "Let not your heart be troubled" is the first
word of the discourse. It will recur at the end.
The reasons are supplied by the intervening

n THE FOUNDATION WORD 125
words. " Troubled " is the best English equiva
lent we can give for the Greek ; but as generally
employed, its force is fainter. The verb Tapdo-o-a,,1
used often of the agitation of waters, the heaving
and surging of the sea, aptly represents the deeper
agitations of the soul, painful to strong natures,
dangerous to the weak. Thrice it is used of our
Lord Himself in some access of vehement emotion.
So He shared the experiences Avhich in us He
would comfort and control. Such a condition
needs control, tending as it does to confusion of
judgment and suspension of faith. " Let not your
heart be troubled " was then not only a word of
sympathetic kindness, but a needful counsel ; and
it is so still, falling with composing power on
many an agitated mind. " Troubled " we must
be in the trying times of this changeful, sinful
mortal life, but not as helpless victims of circum
stances or feelings ; not as losing the higher con
sciousness which should restore composure and
minister support.
This consciousness Jesus revives in his disciples
by the claim He makes on their faith. He does
more than revive it ; He augments it by a reveal
ing word, —
" Ye believe in God, believe also in me."
Shall we read it thus, with the Authorized Ver-
1 Tapda-a-ui, commoveo, turbo, partibus rei hue illuc jactandis,
pr. vSup, irbvTov, iriXayos, etc. (Grimm).

126 THE DISCOURSES chap.
sion and the Revised Version ? or, with the mar
gin and with most commentators, " Believe in
God, believe also in me"? The form of the verb
is both indicative and imperative. No one will
adopt the Vulgate translation, which makes both
clauses indicative. The second is beyond doubt
a charge or exhortation. That is plain from the
whole drift of the discourse, and is intimated by
change in arrangement, " And in me believe."
But what of the first clause? If the word "be
lieve " be taken in a general sense, as in the case
of a creed, the indicative will suit well, recognis
ing that belief in God which is now to receive a
definite completion. But if the word "believe,"
addressed to troubled minds, carries distinctly the
sense of trust and confidence, it seems better to
read both clauses as exhortation, " Believe in
God and in me believe."
Then faith in God and faith in Christ, though
distinct, are one. In each case the same expres
sion is employed, and the same character of faith
intended. The word (irio-Teveiv et's J) is used by
St. John of believing in the full sense of trust and
1 The phrase _.<rr e_«x eh is characteristic of St. John. It
occurs about thirty- five times in the Gospel and three times in
the Epistle. Elsewhere in the New Testament about ten times.
It expresses the very strongest belief ; motion to, and repose
in, the object of belief (Plummer on John i. 13). The idea of
this movement of mind conveyed in eh, into, is imperfectly
contained in our preposition in.

ii THE FOUNDATION WORD 127
affiance. To believe a person is one thing, to
believe in or on him is another. " Believe me "
(v. 11) is not the same as " believeth on me "
(v. 12). Faith in one case accepts the word
spoken; in. the other it cleaves to the person
speaking. The former state of mind is a part of
the latter, but only a part of it. Thus the same
faith which is due to God is claimed by Jesus for
Himself; a great claim involving a great revela-
lation, resting on the Unity in the Godhead of the
Father and the Son.
This saying, which is the foundation word of
the Discourses, is also the foundation word of
Christianity. Faith in God, formed under the
Old Testament, or from whatever source begotten,
finds its justification and completion in faith in
Jesus, and never truly finds it till then. Those
who would now believe in God without believing in
Jesus, as the Christ, the Son of God, have no part
in the promises which are here attached to that
faith, as they have no experience of the life which
is described as consequent upon it. All that fol
lows is the outcome of " Believe also in me."
But why should this be said to disciples who
are already believers ? More than two years back
in the history, it is said, " He manifested forth his
glory, and his disciples believed on Him " (ii. 11) ;
and in the intervening time, this faith has been
augmented. But it may still need words of en-

128 THE DISCOURSES chap.
couragement and confirmation. It often does, as
the writer of this Gospel knew. " These things,"
he says in his Epistle, " have I written unto you
that believe on the name of the Son of God ; that
ye may know that ye have eternal life, and that
ye may believe on the name of the Son of God "
(1 Ep. v. 13). There is a strain upon faith when
it is called to rise to new ideas, or to stand some
searching test. Many have had to meet such ex
periences, but none perhaps comparably to these
disciples at the moment at which they were then
arriving. Their Master's words again and again
bear witness that He felt the crisis of his own his
tory to be the crisis of their faith. Now the new
ideas must open out before them ; in a few hours
the searching test will come.

THE FINAL PROSPECT 129

CHAPTER III
THE FINAL PROSPECT
v. 2, 3
It is the hour of parting. Events are close at
hand which must speak for themselves. They
have been intimated ; but the intimations have not
been understood ; to repeat them would divert from
the present purpose. That bears on the fact of
separation, which is now becoming clear. Their
Master goes — but whither? They will be left —
but how ? What henceforth will He be to them ? or
they to Him ? To these unspoken questions of the
heart the words of consolation are addressed. The
relations which will subsist are ensured by promises,
and the life which they will create is set forth by
instruction. The promises are the foundation for
the instructions.
The last promise comes first. One which passes
over the intermediate life, rises above things on
earth, and with the departing Friend enters the
world unseen. There is his own home, and there
shall be theirs also. There they shall be lovingly
expected, and in due time received.

130 THE DISCOURSES chap.
" In my Father's house are many mansions ;
If it were not so, I would have told you.
I go to prepare a place for you.
And if I go and prepare a place for you,
I will come again and receive you unto myself ;
That where I am, there ye may be also."
Scarcely can one cite these words without passing
at once beyond the limits of the historic situation.
So conscious are we that they have been breathing
on with unchanging freshness through the long cen
turies of faith, that now, at any given moment, they
are bringing a real sense of a lasting home to souls
that have not found it upon earth ; and are being
read by loving voices as last accents of comfort in
the ears of the dying. Yes ! of all words that have
been spoken upon earth, these have done the most
to dispel the darkness beyond the grave, and to
give secure expectations to men as they approach it.
But what was the effect of these words at the
time on the anxious listeners who heard them first?
We cannot measure the degree, — rather should I
say the various degrees, in which, in any company,
new thoughts are apprehended and advancing reve
lations embraced. But the words must have fallen
with sensible comfort on their souls, and there
must have been at least a vague perception of
their power, in all those points, in which, in our
more deliberate reflection, they move or enlighten
us to-day.

iii THE FINAL PROSPECT 131
What are these points ?
First, there is the unity and distinctness of the
Divine Persons, the pervading truth, which in this
and every stage of the discourse carries out the
foundation word " Believe in God, believe also in
Me." Here it appears in the ownership of the
heavenly habitation. It is " my Father's house,"
and therefore mine, where I am at home, and in
possession, and where I have the right to prepare
appointed places and receive the inmates to My
self. Then there is the tender tone of kindness, in
which the information is given and the promise
expressed. Set aside the vastness of the meaning,
and you hear, as it were, the familiar language
of natural affection and domestic hospitality. The
speaker departs ; he miist leave his friends ; but
not to forget them ; he is going home, and knows
the place ; there are rooms which he intends for
them ; he will get everything ready ; he will look
forward to their coming ; nay, will come himself
to receive them ; there they too shall be at home,
in a fellowship to be broken no more. So does
Jesus speak in the simplest, kindest language which
an earthly friend could use ; to bring home to our
weak apprehensions the truth and purposes of his
love. It does bring them home, as more lofty lan
guage could not have done. Under this homely
wording we read the revelations of the unseen.

132 THE DISCOURSES chap.
" In my Father's house " — at once we are car
ried far above the present scene. Once the words
had intended the neighbouring Temple, the relig
ious home of Israel (" make not my Father's house a
house of merchandise," ii. 16). Now we are al
together in another world of thought : Is his
Father's house the universe of God, which cer
tainly contains many and various abodes ? So
some interpret ; but such meaning has no fitness
here. He would have his people think of a home
.with God whither He goes and whither they may
follow. The Father's dominions are one idea, the
Father's house is another. When we speak of
heaven, we transport our local conceptions into the
unseen world, with a sense of how little they may
apply ; but we have no other conceptions than
these to use ; and Jesus teaches us to use them.
The first fact is that in that house are many
"mansions." The English word, derived from
" maneo " (to abide), represents a like, term in
Greek (p,oval~), a term not elsewhere employed in
Scripture, but in this same chapter (v. 23), where
it is said, "We will come and make our abode
(p,ovr}v) with Him." The impression given is
restful, one of settled continuance and secure
possession. So St. Paul compares the "house of
this tabernacle," soon to be " dissolved," with
the " building of God, the house not made with
hands, eternal in the heavens " (2 Cor. v. 1).

hi THE FINAL PROSPECT 133
These mansions are " many." One can scarcely
take this to mean merely that there would be
room for those disciples, or for any number of
inmates. Not the inmates, but the mansions, are
many. Variety of appropriation is suggested,
though not asserted. If the disciples had thought
of the heavenly regions as an abode for angelic
natures, it would be to them a revealing word that
there are many mansions in the Father's house,
where fit place might be found for them. But
indeed such ideas might have been well conceived
before. Much had passed that might inspire
them; and considerate thoughtfulness would not
have left them to fallacious imaginations. " If it
were not so, I would have told you."
To this world and home Jesus will now depart ;
but He goes with special purposes for them. Two
such purposes are mentioned, — preparing a place
for them, and receiving them to Himself.
There is the Father's house, and there are the
many abodes; but do they contain a place for
them? one that shall be theirs by right, appro
priated for them, as they may be qualified for it ?
There is no chance or uncertainty in these things.
Whether in regions of darkness or of light, a man
" goes to his own place " (Acts i. 25). Have poor
children of men, members of a fallen race, on
whom the stain of sin has passed, any proper
place in the mansions here intended ? It appears

134 THE DISCOURSES chap.
that they have none, unless one shall have been
prepared. We understand how men are prepared
for the place ; but not how the place is pre
pared for men. The one process is within our
knowledge ; the other is above it. But the pro
curing cause is certain. It is the entrance of
Jesus there. We have no reason to think that
those who died under the old covenant, and were
carried by the angels into " Abraham's bosom,"
found their rest in the very regions, or spiritual
conditions, of which the Lord is speaking here.
Everything points to the conclusion that those
abodes did not open to sons of men till the Son of
Man was glorified; and that, "in bringing many
sons into glory, the Captain of their salvation"
must pass into it before them. The presence of
that risen and glorified humanity was certainly a
preparation itself. Thus much we are taught con
cerning things "within the veil, whither as fore
runner Jesus entered for us " (Heb. vi. 20) ; and
this distinct meaning, at least, we can attach to
the words, " I go to prepare a place for you."
That action might have been enough for our
needs ; but it is not enough for his love, which
counts one grace to be only a reason for another.
" If I go and prepare a place for you, I come again,
and will receive you unto Myself." Does this
intend a continuous or only a final coming? a
successive or only a collective receiving ? Surely

in THE FINAL PROSPECT 135
both. There is said to be a perspective in prophecy:
there is in all divine words which contemplate a
larger history than our thoughts take in, and treat
the several stages as expressions of the whole and
as component parts of the end. Thus these words
bring not merely a further hope, but an immedi
ate comfort to the departing soul. They must
have taken hold of the hearts of believers from the
first and returned upon them in the hour of need.
Through all ages there have been no words so
natural to the lips of the dying as those of the first
martyr, "Lord Jesus receive my spirit." For him
there was not only a receiving, but a " coming to
receive " : and so there is in some true sense for
others. A Presence comes through the darkness,
and experience will explain. But faith precedes
experience, and the promise is addressed to faith.
Meantime we know that, whatever in the way of
earnest attends the first and immediate change,
the great coming again, the great receiving is not
far off, when the promise will have completion.
" He which testifieth these things saith
Yea, I come quickly,
Amen : come, Lord Jesus."
Great and manifold are the thoughts which
attach to the Coming ; but they have no place in
this parting hour. For the present the personal
feeling is all; and the sorrow of separation can

136 THE DISCOURSES chap.
be consoled only by the prospect of reunion. " I
will receive you unto myself that where I am there
ye may be also." That is here the one thought of
happiness in the coming, the receiving, and the
prepared place. It was so for the disciples ; may
we not say also for Jesus Himself ? for we listen
unmistakeably to a genuine voice of human affec
tion, as well as to the deeper tones of divine love.
Great is the mystery of that love, which makes the
joy of final fellowship to be his as well as theirs ;
a chief feature in " the joy that was set before Him."
How present was this thought to his mind, how
indissolubly united with that of his own passage
into glory ! So He spake in the last soliloquy in
the Temple, " If any man serve me, let him follow
me : and where I am, there shall also my servant
be " (xii. 26) ; so in the final prayer, " Father, I
will that they also whom Thou hast given me be
with me where I am " (xvii. 24). For us it becfomes
the one thought which, in view of the momentous
change, at once comprehends and supersedes all
others. These words of Christ have dwelt in the
heart of the Church. To be " absent from the
body and at home with the Lord " (2 Cor. v. 8), to
" depart and to be with Christ " (Phil. i. 23), have
been to believers a sufficient account of death.
That one truth has set the mind at rest, adjourn
ing all further questions, or securing all needful
answers.

iii THE FINAL PROSPECT 137
" Let me be with Thee, where Thou art,
My Saviour, mine eternal rest ;
Then only will this longing heart
Be fully and for ever blest.
Let me be with Thee, where Thou art,
Where none can die, where none remove ;
There neither death nor life will part
Me from thy presence and thy love."
Thus the opening words of consolation are those
which tell of the end. As has been observed, the
last promise comes first. Is that an instance of
the " divine confusion " ? Say, rather, of divine
order. It came naturally, to relieve the first pain
of parting ; but it would have been adopted by the
most deliberate scheme of discourse. Now every
thing else will fall into its place. Intermediate
promises and instructions will be felt to be inter
mediate, and will derive accessions of fitness and
force from the consciousness of the conclusion to
which they lead. The passage through the valley
is changed, when once we have caught sight of
the hills beyond. We know, in all lines of Hfe,
how differently things are understood, when felt
to be by the way and seen in relation to the end ;
and that can only be when the end has been
unveiled. We see, then, the reason for placing
this subject in the forefront, and so emitting a
light of hope which will shine on all that is to
follow. A discourse which opens in its first sen-

138 THE DISCOURSES chap.
tence with a fundamental principle of doctrine
on which everything is to rest, and then with a
supreme promise which gives command of the
whole situation, intimates an intention of order
and connexion in succeeding topics ; and this we
may hope to trace, though it seem to elude obser
vation, in the current of communication so unre
strained in manner and so profound in meaning.

SELF-REVELATION 139

CHAPTER IV
SELF-REVELATION
v. 4-11
Few words have served to ensure the end and
describe the final prospect. The teaching wanted
is for those who are yet upon the way. To know
the way which will lead to the end, to understand
its nature, its exigencies, and its provisions, these
are the necessities which the rest of the Discourse
supplies. Two considerations will assist its inter
pretation. One is that the persons addressed are
individual men at a certain moment of their own
experience, yet that they are a college formed for
the instruction of mankind, and put in trust with
the truths communicated to them in the interests
of the Church for ever. The other consideration
is, that what they are to learn now can only be
founded on what they have learned already ; since
that is a first principle in all effective education.
Therefore the Master's words are directed, first, to
assume a certain measure of knowledge ; then to
draw out a confession of its defect ; then to raise
it to the higher level.

140 THE DISCOURSES chap.
The subject of the teaching and these purposes
in regard to it are condensed in the word of
introduction, —
" And whither I go, ye know the way."
This, the true reading, given in the Revised
Version, if less grammatical than that to which
we were accustomed, is more direct to the point.
To this assumption one voice, at least, demurs,
that of a disciple, whom we know from other in
stances, is forward to express perplexed or down
cast feelings. Yet doubtless he speaks for the
rest. Thomas saith, —
"Lord, we know not whither Thou goest: how do we
know the way?"
They knew it, as Jesus said ; yet, as Thomas
implied, they knew it not! They knew it, for
they were in it by virtue of their relations with
their Lord ; but they knew it not in its character
of the way. So one may be walking in a road,
pleased with the actual scene, without much
knowledge of the destination to which it is in
tended to lead. But that is the truth now to be
impressed. It is a grand, ample, and pregnant
answer, which these words call forth, a prime
principle of the future Christian Faith : —
" Jesus saith unto him, I am the way, and the truth, and
the life : no one cometh to the Father but by me."
We know this : " I am " (iym et>t), as distinctive

iv SELF-REVELATION 141
of the teaching of Christ. It is not, I make the
way ; I shew the truth ; I give the life : but all
this I am. The first predicate not heard before
gives the lesson now specially intended. The
two others, already well-known words, preserve
the fulness of the revelation. A way, taken by
itself, as means to an end, might have no worth
beyond that office, great as its worth in that sense
might be ; but this case is not such. Jesus Christ
is not a mere expedient for salvation. His inter
vention is not that only of a revealer of truth and
a conductor into life. He becomes the way, be
cause He is absolutely the truth and the life in his
own nature, and relatively to man by communica
tions of Himself. Thus in the nature of things,
and not only by economic arrangement or positive
ordinance, He is for us " the way " to the Father,
to the spiritual world, and to the heavenly home.
This is the lesson here, as contained in the leading
word and afterwards in the decisive exposition,
" No man cometh unto the Father, but by Me."
Two points may be noted. The coming is the act
of man, a voluntary coming ; and it is a coming
to God as the Father. We observe an advance
in the teaching, from place to Person, from the
Father's house to the Father Himself. The arri
val at the house is now seen as the consequence
and consummation of a previous coming to the
Father. It is well said by Godet, —

142 THE DISCOURSES chap.
" Ce n'est pas daus le ciel qu'on trouve Dieu ;
C'est en Dieu qu'on trouve le ciel." (p. 467).
The Christianity of Christ is intensely personal,
in the sense of having directly to do with Persons.
Heaven is not the end proposed, nor is a creed or
method the way prescribed. The Father Himself
is the end ; Jesus Himself is the way. He is the
only way, — " No man cometh unto the Father, but
by Me." But had not men come to God in the
older time ? In reference to one in the earliest age
of the world, it is argued, " He that cometh to
God must believe that He is ; and that He is a re-
warder of them that seek Him out" (Heb. xi. 6).
Thus in faintest light of revelation, with most ele
mentary instructions to faith, men came to God.
Yes ! but this does not exclude mediating commu
nications from the Eternal Word, nor does it affirm
acceptance secured by other means than the pre
destined work of " the Lamb slain from the foun
dation of the world." Yet it is certain, that for
him " that is least in the kingdom of heaven,"
there is a coming to the Father, different in char
acter and effect from that which was attained
before. Since the manifestation of Jesus Christ
in the flesh, the sentence " No man cometh to the
Father, but by Me " has received an explicit mean
ing, to be met by a corresponding faith.
What then is this coming (Sta) by or through
Him ? Like other sayings of this pregnant teach-

iv SELF-REVELATION 143
ing, it will unfold into fuller revelation. Hence
interpretation may adopt separate truths and dif
ferent lines of thought. One religious system will
interpret " by fulfilling his precepts " ; another,
" by likeness to his spirit " ; another, by reliance
on his merits ; another, by faith in his blood. But
every limited exposition falls short of the truth,
which the Lord has comprehended in the single
word " by Me." By the incarnation which creates
the meeting point for man with God, by the human
righteousness in which God is " well pleased," by
the cross and passion which remove the barrier of
sin, by the resurrection which raises man to a new
position, by the gift of the spirit which is life
towards God, by the perpetual efficacy and aid of
the mediation in heaven, — by all these means and
powers we have in Christ that " access " (717.00--
aycoyrj) to the Father of which the Apostolic writ
ings so largely speak. There it is the constant
description of the Christian state, that "through
Him we have had our access by faith into this
grace wherein we stand " (Rom. v. 2) ; that
"through Him we have our access in one Spirit
unto the Father " (Eph. ii. 18) ; that " in Him we
have boldness and access in confidence through
our faith in Him " (iii. 15) ; that we " are made
nigh in the blood of Christ " (ii. 13) ; that we
have boldness to enter into the holiest by the blood
of Jesus, by the way which He dedicated for us, a

144 THE DISCOURSES chap.
new and living way, through the veil — that is to
say, his flesh, and having (in Him) a great priest
over the house of God (Heb. x. 19-21), and finally
that, as ever living and interceding, " He is able
to save to the uttermost those that come unto God
through Him" (vii. 25). In these and many
like expressions, or rather in the entire Apostolic
Gospel, we recognise the expansion of the words
" I am the way. No man cometh unto the Father,
but by Me."
Though these truths will all unfold when " Jesus
is glorified," yet the first communication and con
ception of them belongs to the time of his mani
festation in the flesh. Knowledge received then
must be the foundation of knowledge which will
ensue. It had been received; but how imper
fectly ! how unintelligently ! The defect must be
exposed and reproved. The knowledge must be
made conscious. It must be put into words ; and
a divine certainty given to it at this crisis of the
teaching. Therefore the Lord proceeds : —
" If ye had known me, ye would have known my Father
also : from henceforth ye know him, and have seen him.
Philip saith unto him, Lord, shew us the Father, and it
sufficeth us. Jesus saith unto him, Have I been so long time
with you,- and dost thou not know me, Philip? he that hath
seen me hath seen the Father; how sayest thou, Shew us
the Father? Believest thou not that I am in the Father,
and the Father in me ? The words that I say unto you I
speak not from myself ; but the Father abiding in me doeth

iv SELF-REVELATION 145
his works. Believe me that I am in the Father, and the
Father in me ; or else believe me for the very works' sake "
(7-11). Not now for the first time are such words spoken.
Others like them had been heard by the disciples
in the public pronouncements of their Lord. Does
He now say to them, "If ye had known Me, ye
would have known my Father also " ? So had He
said to the Jews, " Ye know neither Me nor my
Father ; if ye knew Me, ye would know my Father
also" (viii. 19). Does He now say, "He that
has seen Me hath seen the Father " ? So had He
said before, " He that believeth on Me believeth
on Him that sent Me ; and he that beholdeth Me
beholdeth Him that sent Me " (xii. 44, 45). Does
He say, " The words that I say unto you I speak
not from Myself: but the Father abiding in Me
doeth his works " ? So had He said, " I spake not
from Myself. . . . The things which I speak, even
as the Father said unto Me, so I speak " (xii. 49,
50). Does He say, "Believe Me that I am in the
Father, and the Father in Me ; or else believe Me
for the very works' sake " ? The same grounds
for the same belief had been urged before. "If I
do not the works of my Father, believe Me not.
But if I do them, though ye believe not Me, be
lieve the works ; that ye may know and understand
that the Father is in Me, and I in the Father"
(x. 37, 38). No ! there is nothing new in these
K

146 THE DISCOURSES chap.
profound announcements and fundamental truths.
On these, what is now spoken to disciples had been
first addressed to the world. It is always so.
Men become believers and disciples not in response
to an esoteric teaching privately imparted, but by
reception of the common doctrine published to all.
To them, the difference is in the confiding tone of
the communications which ensue, and in the fur
ther development of the truths they have received.
So in regard to these sayings : to the Jews the
message is closed; to the disciples it is opened
out. In the words " If ye had known Me, ye would
have known my Father also," according to the cor
rected reading (et eyvco/cetre fie, Kai tov irarepa fiov
dv rj.etTe) there is a discrimination in the character
of the knowledge by use of two different verbs ; the
first representing a knowledge acquired and pro
gressive ; the second, a knowledge perceptive and
immediate. If the disciples had learned to know
Jesus, as they should have known Him, that would
have involved a perception of the Divine, a sense
of God in Him. The failure is worthy of sad
reproof, but it is not of such a kind as should close
the message. On the contrary, their measure of
attainment is assumed, and what it misses is now
to be given.
"From now (a7r' dprt, ytvmaKeTe) ye know (are
knowing or coming to know) Him and have seen

iv SELF-REVELATION 147
Him." That last word, "have seen," evokes an
appeal which otherwise had scarcely been uttered,
— " Lord, shew us the Father, and it sufficeth us."
Some discovery of the Invisible, otherwise than by
spoken word, has been intimated. Indeed, it seems
wanted. Like Moses, when he urged a like request,
" I beseech Thee shew me thy glory," they felt that
their faith needed some supernatural confirmation ;
one which would preclude doubt and satisfy long
ing ; one of which they could say, "It sufficeth us."
Like thoughts have wrought in many a heart, with
a secret feeling, that, for the faith demanded, what
is given does not suffice. That was the meaning
of the Jews when they required a sign from heaven.
It is the same plea, but not in the same spirit.
There it was in the scorn of unbelief, here it is in
the anxiety of unenlightened faith. It must be
shewn that what has been given seems not suffi
cient, only because it has not been understood.
Philip, the first disciple in the second rank, is
here the spokesman for the rest. The answer is a
grave and tender remonstrance, passing into a dis
tinct and sublime assertion. Through the whole
time that their Lord has been with them, the dis
covery asked for had been going on. "He that
hath seen Me hath seen the Father." The Person
with whom they had companied, his life, his words,
his works, which they had witnessed, had been the
true answers to their request, indeed, the only pos-

148 THE DISCOURSES chap.
sible answers. " The heavens declare the glory of
God " ; but the higher glory of his nature, in what
(for want of a better word) we call his moral attri
butes, cannot be manifested in material works.
Holiness, grace, and truth can only appear in a
person, a character, a life. These came by Jesus
Christ. " No man hath seen God at any time ; the
only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the
Father, He hath declared Him " (John i. 17, 18).
The discovery has been made, the indwelling
Deity had shone before their eyes, the Father had
been manifested in the Son ; but as yet only dimly
descried by eyes which had been holden. The
truth must be made plain. "How sayest thou,
Shew us the Father? Believest thou not that I
am in the Father, and the Father in Me? The
words that I say unto you I speak not from
Myself ; but the Father abiding in Me, He doeth
his works. Believe Me, that I am in the Father,
and the Father in Me."
Here we reach the central truth, on which all else
depends; twice affirmed here, and soon repeated
in the final Prayer: "Thou, Father, art in Me,
and I in Thee " (xvii. 23). All that is passing is
to be read as a history, not of God and Christ, but
of God in Christ. That is the character claimed
for all the words and works. That is the charac
ter recognised afterwards in the one great work,
in which all the rest is comprehended; God was

¦iv •• SELF-REVELATION 149
in Christ reconciling the world unto Himself"
(2 Cor. v. 19). The secret of all is in the mys
tery of the mutual indwelling, in the harmony of
action, mind, and will, resting on the essential
unity of nature. This involves the truth of, "I
am the way ; no man cometh unto the Father, but
by Me." This explains the charge, "Ye believe
in God; believe also in Me." The foundation
doctrine of the discourse, and of Christianity itself,
is now complete.
But there is in this self-revelation a mystery, as
well as a majesty, which may claim a stronger
assurance than usual. That Jesus could sym
pathise with the hesitations of faith is evinced by
the form of his present testimony, which adds to
an appeal for confidence the suggestion of an
argument in reserve. In so speaking, He has
thrown light on a question of no little moment.
A great demand is made on faith. What are
the grounds on which the claim is rested? Two
are indicated, "Believe Me (that I am in the
Father, and the Father in Me), or else believe Me
for the very works' sake." The same distinction
of reasons for faith, and for faith in the same
doctrine, had been made in discussion with the
Jews. " If ye believe not Me, believe the works "
(x. 38). The first ground for believing the asser
tion made is in the person who makes it ; the
second, in the works which support it. The first

150 THE DISCOURSES chap.
appears as the primary claim; the second as sup
plementary or alternative : supplementary in the
case of disciples under the power of the personal
impression; alternative in the case of the Jews
who fail to feel it.
These sayings of the Lord seem to give his
own estimate of the "evidences of Christianity," a
question which has been much debated, and on
wliich different views are taken by minds of dif
ferent habits. According to the first view, Jesus
Christ is his own evidence, by the force of his
unique personality, and by the impression which it
makes on the soul. According to the second, He
gives the evidence by works above natural power,
and by the conclusions which reason must draw.
The effect of the one evidence is heard in the cry
of the first disciples, who as yet had seen no
miracle : " We have found the Messias " ; " Thou
art the Son of God, thou art the King of Israel "
(i. 41-48). The effect of the other is heard in
the acknowledgment of the candid Pharisee : " We
know that thou art a teacher come from God; for
no man can do these signs that thou doest except
God be with him " (iii. 2). The conclusion in
the one case is from intuitive perception and
spiritual sympathy ; in the other, from deliberate
observation and logical reasoning. The one is a
more intimate conviction, and generates a higher
faith ; the other is more capable of verbal exposi-

iv SELF-REVELATION 151
tion and defence. These two kinds of evidence
have had with us an alternate influence. To a
generation suspicious of feeling and enthusiasm,
and trustful in the understanding alone, miracles
became the ideal evidence. Now, a generation,
impressed with the fixity of physical laws, and
appreciative of psychological considerations, is
disposed to slight the supernatural, and insist only
upon the moral evidence. But can the two be
severed ? or the one dispense with the other ? Is
there not a natural correspondence between the
Person and the works, the impression and the
signs which confirm it ? In these sayings of Jesus,
both kinds of evidence are combined and placed in
their relative positions. Thus man is appealed to
on the whole ; and the recognition by one part of
his nature is sustained by the conclusions of the
other. The witness within is of such a character
as to expect the witness from without; and the
witness without answers its end only by generating
the witness within. Thus, to believe the testi
mony of Jesus concerning Himself for his own
sake, or to believe it for the works' sake, are
processes which in some sort include each other,
and in their combined effect create the full con
fidence of faith. Yet, with a true disciple, the
evidence of works is only a subsidiary aid; it is
knowledge of Jesus in Himself which inspires an
assured faith in his highest self-revelations.

152 THE DISCOURSES

CHAPTER V
THE PROMISE OF POWER
v. 12-14
The works have been alleged as evidence for
the faith which has been claimed. It is now de
clared that this evidence is not closed, and that
there is another course of it to come. In saying
this the discourse enters on the next stage of the
history, and opens the dispensation of the future.
This transition is an instance, not of any confu
sion of topics, but of consecutive order. When the
object of faith has been clearly presented, the life
of faith is to be unfolded ; and the brief decisive
exposition of what is to be believed concerning
Jesus leads to the information of what is to be
expected from Him. The transition is marked by
the Amen, Amen, which usually intimates such an
advance in divine disclosures as may need ratifica
tion, on account either of its greatness or of its
strangeness to previous thought. So it stands
here, not only in connexion with the words imme
diately following, but as bearing on all the rest of
the discourse.

v THE PROMISE OF POWER 153
" Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me,
the works that I do shall he do also ; and greater works than
these shall he do ; because I go unto the Father. And what
soever ye shall ask in my name, that will I do, that the
Father may be glorified in the Son. If ye shall ask (me)
anything in my name, that will I do " (12-14).
We are now carried beyond the dividing line
of the departure into the experiences which will
ensue for the disciples, and so into the history of
the Church. The action of Jesus in person is ex
changed for that of the believer in Him, yet the
continuity of the history is preserved : " The works
which I do, shall he do also " ; but it is a continuity
of advance, " greater works than these shall he
do." The Author of them is also the same, for
the intermediate agent becomes such only as a
believer in Him and by prayer in his name ; and
" he will do " (irotrjo-ei), and, " I will do " (iroir/aoi^),
are expressed by the same verb. Also the works
are greater, as a consequence of the exaltation
of their Author, "because I go to the Father."
Thereby the fountain of power for the Church is
opened at the throne of God, and the resources of
heaven are pledged to the applications of faith and
prayer. Finally all is directed to one end, " That
the Father may be glorified in the Son."
Thus in pregnant words and brief outline the
dispensation of the future is described : its conti
nuity with the preceding history, its greater ele-

154 THE DISCOURSES chap.
vation and expansion, its author and governor, its
ministers and agents, its means and methods, the
secret of its power, its intent and end.
Soon will the disciples prove the truth of this
account which now they can but very faintly ap
prehend. As believers in the risen and ascended
Lord, they will do such works as He did on earth,
so far and so long as there is just occasion for
them, but they will find that occasion superseded
by the greater works to which these will conduce.
The few scores of adherents whom the ministry of
Jesus had attracted will become the many thou
sands of believers whom the Apostles will gather.
The fabric of the Church will rise under their
hands, and spiritual life will follow on their word.
In all this they will know no power but that of
their ascended Lord, and no means of success but
prayer in his name. They will count that it is He
who works all things by them, and will seek no
end lower than this, " that God in all things may
be glorified through Jesus Christ " (1 Pet. iv. 11).
Having their acts and their writings under the
dispensation which is here announced, we can see
how the facts fulfilled the promises. As yet they
understood not these things, but in hearing the
words they must have felt that there were rising
before them new sources of comfort and new pros
pects of hope.
Among the elements of the future, which this

v THE PROMISE OF POWER 155
passage contains, is the special feature and distinc
tive characteristic of Christian prayer; namely,
the asking in the name of Jesus. Not possible
during the companionship in the flesh, it is now
heard for the first time, being implied in the
higher faith which has just been taught, and
proper to the dispensation which is at hand.
Twice is it repeated here, once in respect of
"whatsoever ye shall ask the Father," once on
the supposition, " if ye shall ask Me " ; the last
word being an uncertain but probable reading. If
adopted, it conveys an admitted truth, illustrated
by the earliest examples of Christian prayer (Acts
i. 124 ; vii. 59, 66), by the language of the Apos
tolic writings, and frequent in the devotions of
the Church. But direct address to the glorified
Son of Man is (as in our Liturgy) occasional.
Prayer in his name is a perpetual act, an abiding
consciousness and intention. "Through Jesus
Christ our Lord " sounds through all worship, in
all churches, and all ages. It is no mystery. Re
quests made in the name of another are under
stood to imply the appropriation to one's self of
his claims, his merits, his rights to be heard.
Such appropriation and the admission of it can
only rest on close relationship and definite author
isation. Both these exist in the present case:
relationship, in that we appear before God as mem
bers of Christ; authorisation, in his own ordi-

156 THE DISCOURSES chap.
nance expressed in other places, and first in this.
The phrase, " ask in my name," occurs five times
afterwards in these discourses, and at the close as a
final charge reiterated and emphatic (xvi. 24, 26).
Thus was given to the Church not a mere devo
tional form, but a new ground on which the wor
shipper stands ; a new plea for the success of his
petitions ; and, in fact, a wholly new character to
prayer, since it must be brought into unison with
the mind of Him in whose. name it is presented.
How welcome is this charge ! how suited to all
our need! Certainly it is a positive ordinance,
but is felt as a moral necessity ; in view, on the
one side, of the disabilities of sin, and on the other,
of the relations of the believer with his Saviour.
The most elementary prayer, if true at all, finds
in this ordinance comfort and relief ; and in pro
portion as knowledge of sin grows deeper, and
approaches to God are more close, and as emer
gencies of spiritual life multiply, and its capacities
and desires enlarge, in that proportion is there an
increasing power and sweetness in this use of the
prevailing name. So all liturgies and public de
votions, all private prayers and supplications, all
secret communion with God, and unuttered breath
ings of the soul, have derived their tone and life
from this ordinance of the central chapter of the
Gospel.

THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE 157

CHAPTER VI
THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE
v. 15-24
The words of promise thus given, important as
they were, yet did not meet the case. They did
not afford the consolation needed by those troubled
souls. A prospect of works to be done, and gifts
to be supplied for doing them, did not take ac
count of the real distress, or answer the desolate
feelings of the moment. The departure, which is
at hand, means indefinite separation with the loss
of the dear presence in which they have lived, and
of the companionship which has been their guid
ance and support. It means also the disappoint
ment of tlieir just expectation that their Lord
was about to be manifested to the world. These
are the thoughts which amaze and depress their
hearts ; and to meet these thoughts, the rest of the
discourse is directed. Addressed, as it is, to the
feelings of the men at the moment, it remains a
revelation of enduring truth, and is still for us
a divine interpretation of the dispensation under
wliich we live.

158 THE DISCOURSES chap.
It is best, I think, to read as one section the
promises which respond to these desolations of the
heart, and which substitute for the experiences
of separation and loneliness the hope of another
Comforter, another advent, a more intimate asso
ciation, and a more elevating manifestation.
" If ye love me, ye will keep my commandments. And I
will pray the Father, and he shall give you another Com
forter, that he may be with you for ever, even the Spirit of
truth, whom the world cannot receive ; because it seeth him
not, neither knoweth him; ye know him, for he abideth
with you, and shall be in you. I will not leave you deso
late ; I will come to you. Yet a little while, and the world
beholdeth me no more, but ye behold me ; because I live, ye
shall live also. In that day ye shall know that I am in my
Father, and ye in me, and I in you. He that hath my com
mandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me ; and
he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will
love him, and will manifest myself to him.
"Judas- (not Iscariot) saith unto him, Lord, what is
come to pass that thou wilt manifest thyself to us, and not
unto the world ? Jesus answered and said unto him, If a
man love me, he will keep my word : and my Father will
love him, and we will come unto him, and make our abode
with him. He that loveth me not keepeth not my words;
and the word which ye hear is not mine, but the Father's
which sent me " (15-24).
Before the promises there is a proviso. It is
premised that there is a state of heart and a char
acter of life to which they belong. As the works

vi THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE 159
and the gifts of power were made dependent on
faith and prayer, so the experiences now foretold
presuppose the life of love and duty. This appro
priation is laid down to begin with, and is insisted
on more largely as the promises unfold. The pref
erable reading, " If ye love Me, ye will keep my
commandments," gives the future instead of the
imperative of the Authorized Version, rather de
scribing a process than imposing a condition ; but
the meaning is the same ; namely, that these are
promises which belong only to him who loves and
obeys. In " If ye love Me " we hear a confiding
rather than a doubtful tone. The love is supposed,
as elsewhere it is expressly recognised (xvi. 17).
But it proves true love only in one way, " If ye
love Me, ye will keep my commandments " ; and
again, "He that hath my commandments and
keepeth them, he it is that loveth Me." There
is a voice of divine authority in the phrase, " my
commandments " ( t<_? evroXdi ra? ./-a., the com
mandments which are mine). They claim obedi
ence, but the obedience of love; and love will
render it. Love is the spring of action, and is
in its nature free; but it is not left to its own
impulses; it acknowledges authority; it is placed
under rule, and includes the element of obliga
tion. This connexion of love and commandment
dwelt on the mind of the Evangelist, and reap
pears more than once in his Epistle. It is not

160 THE DISCOURSES chap.
according to the tendencies of human nature, as
we all know; and as St. Paul has set forth in
the seventh chapter to the Romans in recording his
experience of the law and its effects. It is, in fact,
distinctive of Christian duty and of the morality
of the G-ospel. In Christ the claims of authority
and the affections of the heart agree in one. Here,
as ever, the teaching of Jesus fixes our minds
on the practical side of religion ; on the doing
what we know, on the living and walking by his
words. In this present teaching, which is, in its
intention, a ministry of promise, opening out the
higher blessings of the state of grace, He still
provides that it shall not even seem to be dissoci
ated from the ministry of commandment. How
can we better respond to it than in the words of
the collect, fitted for habitual use ? asking of Him
" who alone can order the unruly wills and affec
tions of sinful men," that He will "grant to his
people to love the thing which He commandeth,
and to desire that which He doth promise, that so,
among the sundry and manifold changes of the
world, our hearts may surely there be fixed where
true joys are to be found."

Now we enter on the promises, the special prom
ises which are in Christ, addressed, as we have
seen, to the faith which believes in Him, the love

vi THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE 161
which adheres to Him, the obedience which keeps
his words ; and now first we hear the promise,
inclusive of the rest, and distinctive of the New
Covenant — that of the Holy Ghost, the Com
forter. Had it not been heard before? Never as it is
now. Yet was it the first announcement, when
Jesus entered on the scene of action, " On whom
thou shalt see the Spirit, descending and remain
ing on Him, the same is He which baptiseth with
the Holy Ghost" (i. 33). On Him the Spirit
remained; but that He baptised with the Holy
Ghost does not appear, at least by any phenomena
which made it evident, or by any consciousness
of it, which is expressed by disciples. If we ex
cept the promise that, when needful for their testi
mony, the Spirit of their Father will speak by them ;
and the statement to Nicodemus that the new birth
is " of the Spirit " ; and the phrase, " your Father,
which is in heaven, shall give the Holy Spirit to
them that ask Him," the equivalent in St. Luke
(xi. 13); for "shall give good things" (Matt.
vii. 1), it is observable that, in the teaching of
Jesus in the flesh, the doctrine of the Holy Ghost
is conspicuous by its absence, or, if present, is
veiled in parable and prediction. For this marked
reserve concerning it, St. John has given the rea
son, when afterwards, writing in the dispensation
of the Spirit, he interprets the words concerning

162 THE DISCOURSES chap.
the " living water." " This spake He of the Spirit,
which they that believed on Him were to receive ;
for the Spirit was not yet ; because Jesus was not
yet glorified." The reason given for the reserve
supplied the reason for terminating it, in the teach
ing which now expounds the situation which is to
follow after that great change shall have occurred.
Then, it is said, " I will pray the Father, and He
shall give you another Comforter, that He may be
with you for ever — the Spirit of truth." When
the work on earth is finished, by request made in
the glory that follows, the gift is to be obtained
and bestowed. Three expressions are used here,
" I will ask — and He will give " ; again, " Whom
the Father will send in my name " (vi. 26) ; and yet
again, " Whom I will send to you from the Father "
(xv. 26, xvi. 7). Thus the gift is ascribed to God
in Christ, to Christ in God, while the personality
attributed to Him who is sent involves a revela
tion of the Trinity.
But the word " Parac le te " is also a revelation in
respect of his relations with the spirit and life of
man. In form it describes one called to the side
of another; in intention it expresses the purpose
for which he is come, the friendly office which he
there fulfils. Many are the emergencies of human
life, and many are the forms of help which they
require, and all are included in this great compre
hensive name. If we wish to distinguish, we may

vi . THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE 163
range them in two divisions, the advocacy of our
cause before others, the support of companionship'
to ourselves. When we think of the one office,'
we speak of an advocate ; when of the other, of a
comforter. But the same person will fulfil either
office as need requires ; and both are included in
the word " Paraclete." Therefore the choice of the
English equivalent in any particular case may be
dictated by the nature of the occasion and the
general feeling of the situation. If so, the Revis
ers have done well in retaining the old rendering
" the Comforter " in the four passages in which
" Paraclete " here occurs, as they were plainly
right in retaining that of " Advocate " in the only
other passage where it is found (1 John ii. 1).
The situation presented in the Gospel more natu
rally suggests the first rendering, while that con
templated in the Epistle certainly prescribes the
second. Here " another Paraclete " is promised
in tenderest sympathy with the actual feelings of
the men now about to lose that companionship
of their Master which had been their life, their
strength, and their stay. When He says " another
Paraclete " He takes the title as descriptive of
what they knew He had been to them, while He
had gone out and come in among them. That
experience interprets the meaning of the promise.
We must read the word " Comforter " in its true
and old English sense, not in the lower and feebler

164 THE DISCOURSES chap.
meaning which it mostly carries now.1 It speaks
of strength, support, encouragement, given to the
life of thought and action, still more than of con
solation in trial or sorrow. Yes ! it was a word to
cheer and strengthen men about to be launched on
the experiences of a new life, of an arduous work, and
of conflict with a hostile world. In their conscious
weakness and dimness of mind they will need a
fellowship with strength and light ; and they shall
have it; they shall, not be left alone. The old
association ends, but a new association is to suc
ceed, one habitual and permanent, with no limit
to its continuance, in that respect contrasted with
that which has lasted so few years and has reached
the parting hour. The promise is for all genera
tions of believers and to the end of time He " shall
be with you (et _ tov al&va) for ever."
Who, then, is this companion of the future, this
eternal Paraclete? "Even the Spirit of truth."
The attribute of truth, thus chosen to characterise
the Spirit and the Spirit's work, at once connects
the gift with the deepest needs of man and the
1 Comfort : Fr. conforter ; ecclesiastical Latin, conforto
(from fortis ' strong '), properly ' to strengthen.' — Aldis Wright's
"Bible Word Book," pp. 146, 147. Examples are givenfromthe
Old Testament, from legal documents and treaties, from Shake
speare and Bacon, and two curious instances, one from Wiclif ,
who renders (Is. xii. 7), " he comforteth hym with nailes, that
it sha not be moved". — and another from the earlier version
which gives for Phil. iv. 13, " I may alle things in him that com
forteth me."

vi THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE 165
highest purposes of God. It places the history to
come in line with that which is past, the work of
the Spirit with that of Jesus in the flesh. " For
this end (He said), was I born, and for this cause
came I unto the world, that I might bear witness
to the truth" (xviii. 37). It corresponds with the
Apostolic calling of those who are to be deposita
ries, witnesses, and preachers of the truth amid the
ignorance, errors, and falsehoods of the world.
Their testimony now will not be the mere outcome
of their personal apprehensions ; it will be " the
Spirit that beareth witness because the Spirit is
the truth " (1 John v. 7) ; and He is so in a fuller
sense than the truest word can be.1 Thus a neces
sary adaptation as well as a vast resource is con
tained in the name " the Spirit of truth."
But to the world the Spirit is unreal, only a
metaphysical expression, or a poetic fiction. It
"cannot receive Him, because it beholdeth Him
not " in the visible sense, " neither knoweth Him "
by intellectual process. In it the preparatory ap
prehensions and sympathetic affinities are wanting.
But they are not wanting in the little company
1 ' ' L'enseignement des choses divines par le moyen de la parole
ne peut jamais nous en donner qu'une id6e confuse : quelque
habilement que soit employe ce moyen de communication, il ne
peut produire dans l'ame de I'auditeur qu'une image de la
v6rit6. L'enseignement de I'Esprit, au contraire, fait penetret
la ventfi clans l'Sme : il lui donne ainsi pleine realit. au dedans
de nous, et en fait pour nous la v6rit6 " (Godet, ii. 177).

166 THE DISCOURSES chap.
which surrounds the person of Jesus. Besides the
impression made by his words and works, there
was an indefinable sense of the Spirit which abode
upon Him. Therein was a mystery beyond their
knowledge. The human nature in Christ, not
only derived from conjunction with Deity all such
perfections as it was itself apt to receive, but from
his baptism it was also anointed with such a
superadded gift of the Spirit as was proper for the
purposes of his manifestation.1 Hence the disci
ples had felt in the presence of their Lord the
character and action of the Spirit that was in Him,
so that it could be said to them, " Ye know Him,
for He dwelleth with you," or, more literally, " is
abiding (irapa) beside you."
Now it is added, " and shall be in you." That is
a great advance. The same Spirit which was in
j Christ, which in his Deity was one with Him, and
| in his humanity rested upon Him, was in the
^coming time to be in them, no longer only telling
/on them as an influence from without, but, as
; Paraclete, dwelling and working within, in asso-
| ciation with their own spirit. The faith in this
promise and the experience of its fulfilment
breathe, as we know, through all the apostolic
writings, making them a continual expression of
" the communion of the Holy Ghost."
Great was the promise ; but could it be accepted
1 Hooker, B. v. ch. 54.

vi THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE 167
as a substitute for the presence and fellowship of
the Lord Himself? Never, by any heart that
loved Him. That would mean bereavement and
desolation. Nor is it an exchange which his own
love could propose. The promise is not of a sub
stitution which excludes, but of a means which
secures, his presence. " I will not leave you deso
late " (opcpavovs, orphans, now one of the most
touching of English words). "_T come to you."
Does the Spirit of Christ enter the soul ? Then it
is Christ who enters. That is a true coming, and
a real communion.
But it must be so on both sides. On his part it
is pledged ; but how will it be on theirs ? What
will be their consciousness, their perceptions, their
understanding of this fact? The question is an
ticipated. Yes ! they shall see, they shall know,
they shall have the experience of manifestation
and the sense of fellowship.
It is true He must disappear. " Yet a little
while, and the world beholdeth Me no more."
(He has walked in the sight of men, and has been
observed with superficial wonder. But that mani
festation has reached its end. That kind of be
holding, the only kind of which the world was
capable, can be no more.) " But ye behold Me "
(./tet? _e Oetopelre /u.e). They have already another
faculty of sight which will grow clearer yet. Still
will their Master remain before their minds as

168 THE DISCOURSES chap.
the great object of faith, and fill the field of vision.
To the world He will be a name in history ; to
them, a living presence, and one from which their
own life will be derived. "Because I live, ye
shall live also." What a security is this ! What
a charter to hold by ! What a life in which to
partake ! Fully were these brief sentences un
folded in the after-experience of the Church.
They may even be said to be an epitome of the
Epistles. There the believer has ever in full view
the living Lord, and finds in his life the source
and supplies of his own, a Christ who lives in him,
in whom he lives, and with whom he shall live
for ever.
It is of the experience of that time that Jesus is
speaking here. In that day (the day when He
is gone, and the Spirit given), "in that day ye
shall know that I am in my Father, and ye in Me,
and I in you." He had said before to Philip,
" Believest thou not that I am in the Father, and
the Father in Me?" for that truth might have
been, and ought to have been, already believed.
But the knowledge now spoken of belonged only
to " that day," future then, but present soon and
now. Then was consummated the scheme for
union of man with God, through Christ in heaven
abiding in his Father, and on earth abiding in his
people, as they also in Him. Of that mutual in
dwelling He will soon speak again (xvi. 4-7) ; but

vi THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE 169
here He says it shall be known. And so it is ; as
we oft record in the act which renews and seals
this union, humbly adopting these words of his,
and saying, " Then we dwell in Christ, and Christ
in us ; we are one with Christ, and Christ with
us." Plaving thus revealed the powers of spiritual
life, the Lord reverts to the qualifications for it.
He had begun with, " If ye love Me, ye will keep
my commandments " ; He ends with, " He that
hath my commandments and keepeth them, he it
is that loveth Me." The great promise is enclosed
between these two sayings, the first presenting
love as the spring of obedience ; the second, obe
dience as the proof of love. So carefully has He
marked the appropriation of the gift to those only
who are capable of receiving it.
Love, true practical love, constitutes the qualifi
cation; but it is more than a qualification. We
must regard it in its atmosphere of happiness
created by divine reciprocity, " He that loveth Me
shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him,
and will manifest Myself to him." The assertion
is that, where such love to Christ exists, there a
greater love is in action on the other side, the love
of the Father to one who loves the Son, and the
love of the Son as Friend and Saviour, making
the confidences and discoveries which are proper
to the nature of love (Kai eficpavlaoi aiiTa i/iav-

170 THE DISCOURSES chap.
to'.). "I will manifest Myself to him," disclose
to him what I am myself and what I am to him.1

Here the subject has been brought to a close,
and the consoling promise is completed. But
there is an anxiety in the minds of the disciples
which the words have not met, nay, which they
seem to set aside. One who, we may suppose, felt
it most, Judas (not the Iscariot who had gone out
into the night) Thaddeus, takes occasion from the
last word to utter the thought of his heart.
"Lord," he says, "what is come to pass that to
us Thou art about to manifest Thyself and not
unto the world?" All that has been said has been
of an interior revelation to themselves ; but what
then of public discovery and manifestation to the
world ? Shall not the unbelieving world be made
to own the truth of the Lord's mission, and to
acknowledge his rights and glory? The words
have even seemed to disallow that hope. The
Paraclete will come to them, but the world will
not know Him ; their Lord will be seen by them,
but the world will not behold Him ; He will mani
fest Himself, but only to those who love Him.
1 The verb ./i^aWfw is not the ordinary and frequent word
which is rendered by "manifest." It is used five times in the
Acts (xxii. 15 ; xxiii. 22 ; xxiv. 1 ; xxv. 2 and 15) of disclos
ures made or information given ; also in the passive voice, of
special "appearings" (Matt, xxvii. 53; Heb. xxiv.).

vi THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE 171
What has happened (rt yeyovev\) to change the
expected course of things? It was a natural ques
tion. False and true Messianic hopes were min
gled in the hearts of the disciples, and the end
to which they had thought they were approaching
seemed now to be vanishing from their sight.
There was a tone of the false idea and of the
very spirit of the world in the anxious question of
Judas. The same spirit had spoken more plainly
in the brethren of the Lord (vii. 3, 4), " If Thou
do these things, shew Thyself to the world." We
understand these feelings ; they are common to
man ; never more so than now. " Shew Thyself to
the world" may stand as the motto of our time.
The world, the multitude, numbers, a "great
work," a theatre of action, popular applause,
acknowledged success, publicity, advertisement of
self and proclamation on the housetops, — these
are reigning ideas; they infect religion and the
Church; they alloy the motives, and deteriorate
the character of Christian service; and they im
pair the interest in that interior life to which the
preceding promises belong. The prevalent Mes
sianic idea was instinct with this worldly spirit,
and it had not yet been wholly banished from the
hearts of the disciples. There was indeed to be
a manifestation and conquest and success, but not
of the kind they dreamed of. It was not now the
time to explain, and the present teaching was in

172 THE DISCOURSES

another region of thought. " Jesus answered and
said unto him, If a man love Me, he will keep my
word, and my Father will love him, and We will
come unto him and make our abode with him.
He that loveth Me not keepeth not my words."
Was this an answer? Yes, in the truest sense:
an implied answer to the question ; a direct answer
to the feeling which it betrayed ; calling back the
mind from a side issue and a misleading line of
thought, and giving to the truth, which seemed
to have been slighted, a fresh confirmation and
more touching form. It is a truth not for the
world, but for the man ; for him who " keeps the
word of Christ " (not the words, but the word as a
whole), and it contemplates not a public discovery
of power, but a sort of domestic visitation of love.
The language combines a homely tone with its
grand and gracious meaning. "We will come
unto him." Who is this that, uniting Himself
with the Eternal, speaks of what " We will " do ?
And who are these Guests who come to a poor
man's door (and all are poor before Them), and
come to enter in, and that not to visit, but to
stay? "We will make our abode with him"
(/iovtjv irap' avroj irotTjadfiev). The same word is
employed which had been used before of the abid
ing-places, or "mansions," in the Father's house.
It describes a settled habit and habitation, and
breathes of the atmosphere of home. By him

vi THE PROMISE OF THE PARACLETE 173
who " kept the word," the promise was felt as ful
filled. Long afterwards St. John wrote to "the
elect lady," "He that abideth in the doctrine, he
hath both the Father and the Son " (2 John 9).
A concluding word glances at the opposite case,
" He that loveth Me not keepeth not my words."
So the world is excluded, and the hearer warned.
To all is added the seal of the oft-repeated affirma
tion, " And the word which ye hear is not mine,
but the Father's which sent Me."

174 THE DISCOURSES

CHAPTER VII
PROMISE OF TEACHING
v. 25, 26
" The word which ye hear is not mine, but the
Father's which sent Me." Has that word reached
its end, and is his teaching now to cease ? It
would seem so, since these are the last hours of
intercourse, and He is going where his disciples
cannot come. Had He then said all that He had
to say? was his teaching then complete? Was
the word delivered in the days of his flesh the
whole word that was really his ? That would be
a great question for the Church afterwards ; it
was a great question for the disciples then. To
them He had been the Teacher (6 StSao-/.a\o.);
that was the relation in which they had known
Him. And they had been his disciples indeed;
his words had entered into their souls. "To
whom," they said, " shall we go ? Thou hast
words of eternal life." Yet had they apprehended
those words imperfectly ; and their education was
still in an early stage. Much that they had heard
was in their minds undefined and incoherent,

vii PROMISE OF TEACHING 175
rather the materials than the forms of thought,
and much would even pass from remembrance, if
not fixed by a more clear intelligence. The defect
of that intelligence had been shown by their ques
tions at this very time ; and the great words of
revelation to which they had been listening must
have made them feel more deeply than ever the
need of further teaching. The assurance that
they were to have it is an essential point in this
discourse of consolation.
" These things have I spoken unto you, while yet abiding
with you. But the Comforter, even the Holy Spirit, whom
the Father will send in my name, he shall teach you all
things, and bring to your remembrance all that I have said
unto you" (25, 26).
This declaration is explicit. The teaching which
Jesus came to give was not yet completed, and
was not to end with his sojourn upon earth. By
" these things I have spoken to you," He intends
all the lessons of the past ; and by " while abiding
with you" (Trap1 vfilv p.eva>v) He implies that this
abiding will be no more. But the teaching is not
over ; it will be continued by the Paraclete, who is to
be sent in " his name," as his representative, to carry
on his lessons, and to recall and interpret his
words. Also, as has been said, the Spirit is the
same, who in the person, words, and works of Jesus
has been already present in the earlier stage of
teaching. Now He is described by the name which

176 THE DISCOURSES chap.
the Church adopts and celebrates for ever, "the
Holy Spirit," or (shall we say?) the Holy Ghost.
Why break the living threads of language which
connect our faith with that of our own forefathers ?
If scholars read, " the Holy Spirit, the Advocate,"
let the people still say, "the Holy Ghost, the
Comforter." It is no mere power or influence
which is expressed in that name ; and in this place
the personality of the Spirit is emphasised when
the neutral form of the word irvevfia changes, in
the pronoun " He " (./.etz/o?), into masculine form
and personal sense. But that is only noticeable as
being the expression of a truth implied through
out. So Stier has said. " Is not the personal,
official name, in equality with the person of Jesus,
in itself decisive ? He who can regard all the there
with connected personal expressions (of teaching,
reminding, testifying, coming, convincing, guiding,
speaking, hearing, prophesying, taking) in these
three chapters as being no other than a long-drawn-
out figure, deserves not to be recognised even as
an interpreter of intelligible words, much less an
expounder of Holy Scripture." This clear enun
ciation of the doctrine of the Holy Ghost in respect
of nature and office is one chief feature which
marks the central character of all this teaching;
for the revelation itself is central, both in the his
tory of the Gospel and as an article of the Creed,
standing in the latter as well as in the former

vii PROMISE OF TEACHING 177
between the manifestation of Christ on the one
side, and the life of the Church on the other.
The office of teacher, here (and afterwards)
assigned to the Spirit, is part of his office of Com
forter. To the awakened mind, to the anxious
soul, comfort, in its true sense, can only come
through teaching. It is the truth alone which
will satisfy ; it is the word which must strengthen,
gladden, and support. The promise here describes
this teaching (1) in its general character, (2) in
its special method (BtSd^et, Kai virofivrjo-et).
It is a general promise, and a large one. " He
shall teach you all things " ; all that is, for which
divine teaching is needed, " all that is to be known
for salvation and life eternal " (Stier), or, as is after
wards more distinctly expressed, all the truth (xvi.
13). It was a needful promise to those who were
themselves to be teachers of the world. The sub
jects of this teaching will appear more particularly
in the next discourse. In this, for the purpose of
consolation and assurance, the general promise is
sufficient. But this future teaching is not to be severed
from that which preceded it. It is the continua
tion of the personal teaching of Jesus ; and its
first office is to recall, perpetuate, and interpret
the words of his lips : " He shall teach you all
things and bring to your remembrance all that I
have said unto you." The things that Jesus said
M

178 THE DISCOURSES chap.
are for ever the firm grounds of our faith, and the
germinant principles of Christian thought, and
there is nothing developed in the second stage of
divine teaching which has not its root and sub
stance in the first. Every doctrine expanded in
the Epistles roots itself in some pregnant saying
in the Gospels ; and the original intimation of every
truth opened by the Spirit to the Apostles came to
them first from the lips of the Son of Man. The
later revelation may enlarge the earlier, may dis
cover its fulness, or define its applications ; but the
earlier revelation stands behind it still, and we owe
our first knowledge of every part of the Gospel to
those communications in which the salvation " be
gan to be spoken by the Lord" (Heb. ii. 3). We
can observe this fact for ourselves by comparative
study of these sacred writings. It rests on the
fulfilment of the promise, " He shall bring to your
remembrance all things that I said to you."
Since, then, it was through these men that Jesus
would teach the world for ever, if any graces were
bestowed upon them at all, this grace of special
remembrance would be the most important for them
to receive, seeing it was needed for the preserva
tion of the foundations of the faith. No wonder
it is thus definitely promised in the first account of
the work of the Spirit. Such a grace of remem
brance would have two consequences, — one the
adequate report and perpetuation of the words of

vii PROMISE OF TEACHING 179
Christ, the other the growing apprehension of
their significance through continued presence in
the mind under this heavenly guidance.
As to the first, we may adopt the words of Alford
in his note on the passage : " It is on the fulfilment
of this promise to the Apostles that their sufficiency
as witnesses of all that the Lord did and taught,
and consequently the authenticity of the Gospel
narrative is grounded." This adequacy or suffi
ciency of report does not, I think, exclude such
variations of remembrance as belong to the nature
of human memory, variations which might well
be used, under this spiritual guidance, for the more
complete rendering of the whole report. But it
does exclude such variations as would be divergent
from the intention of the Speaker, and would fail
to render the real meaning of his words ; since
his own Spirit, presiding over the remembrance,
would secure the true expression of his mind.
There is no small importance in this considera
tion, in its bearing on differences of verbal report,
which no doubt existed in the oral teaching, as
they do in the written records. It must certainly
have the effect of making the questions that may
thus arise of minor consequence, since it adds the
security of divine superintendence to that of
responsible recollection.
It need scarcely be said that a natural effect of
the vivid remembrance of things is a clearer intel-

180 THE DISCOURSES chap.
ligence in regard to them, and a more certain esti
mate of their character and importance. In our
common experience nothing is better known to us
than this. Indeed, how many — how very many —
things are only understood in remembrance ! We
see them after they are over, free from the confus
ing circumstances and disordered feelings of the
moment ; we consider them with more thoughtful
reflection and more impartial judgment; we con
template them from a distance which enables us to
see them as a whole, and in their relations to other
things which go far to explain them ; and this is
more true and more observable in proportion to
the greater gravity or deeper significance of the
things remembered.
Never certainly did any acts or words so evi
dently await this subsequent illumination as those
which were seen and heard by the followers of
Jesus during the brief period in which He was
with them. Often did He rebuke their dulness of
apprehension and mistakes about his sayings at the
time. Sometimes He told them, as repeated in
these very discourses, that they would find the
profit of his words in the future, — "I have told
you before it come to pass that when it is come to
pass ye may believe " (v. 29, and xiii. 19, and xvi.
4). Always we feel that the hearers are but begin
ning to understand, and they often record their own
failure of intelligence. " They understood not

vii PROMISE OF TEACHING 181
that saying — they knew not the things which
were spoken " ; and sometimes with definite refer
ence to their later knowledge, " When He was risen
from the dead, his disciples remembered that He
spake this, and they believed the Scripture and
the word which Jesus said " (ii. 22) ; or, again,
" These things understood not his disciples at the
first, but when Jesus was glorified, then remem
bered they that these things were written of Him,
and that they had done these things unto Him "
(xii. 16).
There were many causes which adjourned to a
time of remembrance the full apprehension of his
words. Such were their frequent predictive and
parabolic character, their largeness and elasticity
of meaning, their far-reaching intention, their rela
tion to a course of things which was still in prog
ress, to events which had not yet taken place, to a
dispensation which was only being prepared. He
is ever addressing men accustomed to another
habit of thought than that into which He is lead
ing them, and in a preparatory stage of their edu
cation. Hence there is often a mingled tone of
revelation and reserve in utterances which are
addressed to the moment, while they teach the
Church for ever. It has been well said: —
" When we look into our Saviour's conduct in the days of
his flesh, we find that He purposely concealed that knowledge,
which yet He gave ; as if intending it should be enjoyed, but

182 THE DISCOURSES

not at once ; as if his words were to stand, but to wait awhile
for their interpretation ; as if reserving them for his coming,
who at once was to bring Christ and his works into the
light. . . . Apparently it was not till after his resurrection,
and especially after his ascension, when the Holy Ghost
descended, that the Apostles understood who had been with
them. Now here we see, I think, the trace of a general prin
ciple, which comes before us again and again, both in Scrip
ture and in the world, that God's presence is not discerned at
the time when it is upon us, but afterwards, when we look
back upon what is gone and over. Our Saviour's history
will supply instances in evidence of this remarkable law." 1
Yes, it supplies the most perfect instances we
can imagine ; and if so great a part in the com
prehension of the Gospel history necessarily be
longed to the stage of remembrance, it would seem
that such a promise as we read here, even if it had
not been spoken, must be included in the scheme
of divine teaching. For if the words of the Lord
Jesus are words of eternal life, and are to the
Church both primary foundations of faith and
germinant principles of thought, and if, in the
nature of the case, they could only be under
stood in remembrance, then the first work of the
Spirit would necessarily be to secure that remem
brance and assist that understanding. If there
was any grace or superadded aid at all given to the
1 J. H. Newman's "Parochial Sermons," — " Christ mani
fested in remembrance." The sermon is a fine example of the
writer's cast of thought ahd of expression.

vii PROMISE OF TEACHING 183
Apostles, as witnesses to Christ, this would be
the first that they would need and, therefore,
might expect to receive ; and now we hear it
assured to them by as plain a promise as could
be given. In virtue of this promise we read, with
secure confidence, in the Gospels the words of our
Lord, and in the Acts and Epistles the expansions
of them and deductions from them. They receive
a seal and certificate beyond those of human mem
ory and human reflection in the presence of the
Spirit of truth, manifested, indeed, in many ways,
but here first pledged by the lips of Him who
gives both the Word and the Spirit. " He shall
teach you all things and bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said to you."

184 THE DISCOURSES

CHAPTER VIII
THE BENEDICTION OF PEACE
v. 27
The discourse of consolation draws to its end.
It has been a revelation first to faith, then to hope.
Its first part, " Believe also in Me," has led on to
a fuller knowledge of Jesus Christ Himself. Its
second, " He shall give you another Comforter,"
has opened out into a new prospect of life in the
Spirit. These discoveries are sources of consola
tion, no doubt vaguely felt at the moment, but to
be consciously experienced afterwards. Such a
discourse is fitly closed by a benediction of peace.
" Peace I leave with you : my peace I give unto you.
Not as the world giveth give I unto you.
Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be fearful."
Peace is the equivalent for the old Hebrew word
fi ..'ll'* which was used so constantly, and meant
so much. It summed up the ideas of inward and
outward good, and might in any particular, case
have a more loose or more definite meaning,
according to the mind of him who used it. " Peace

viii THE BENEDICTION OF PEACE 185
be with you " was a familiar salutation ; " Go in
peace," a gracious dismissal. So Jesus spake as
others spake. " He came and stood in the midst,
and said to them, Peace be unto you" (xx. 19).
He said to those on whom He had shewed com
passion (viraye — iropeiov et? elpr\vr\v, Mark v. 34,
Luke vii. 50), — " Go into peace," as not only the
feeling of the moment, but the state ensuing.
Thus it was both a word of greeting and one of
farewell. Here it is the latter, spoken as in act of
departure. " Peace," He says, " I leave to you "
(dcplrifu, the same word as used before, " I will not
leave you desolate "). Thus He speaks of this con
dition as an inheritance for those who are left.
But the expression, by itself, is too indefinite for
the present intention. What peace, and how be
stowed ? Both points shall be made clear ; for in
Christ things are specific and ascertained, and not
left as they appear in the hazy atmosphere of
general good wishes.
" Peace I leave with you : my peace I give unto
you" (elpijvrjv rrjv e/ii)v — peace that is mine), that
which I possess, which is realised in Me, and
which is proper to the life that is in Me. We see
at once that the peace intended is peace within ;
for outward peace was not the portion of Him
who was " a man of sorrows," and bore " the con
tradiction of sinners against Himself," and for
Whom at that moment the terrible crisis was at

186 THE DISCOURSES chap.
hand. Yet all the more, as He moves through
trial and conflict, do we feel the serene majesty of
a deep-seated peace. The enemy cannot trouble
it; the world cannot disturb it; for it consists in
the composure of holy affections, the calmness of
a settled purpose, and the sunshine of unclouded
union with God. The peace which He imparts
He calls '•'•my peace," because it is to be an efflu
ence from his own, and therefore will share its
nature and bear its likeness.
Again, as the peace is thus distinguished, so
also is the giving. " My peace I give unto you ;
not as the world giveth, give I unto you." The
world is free with its conventional wishes, and
those not always sincere. Certainly its own spirit
is not the spirit of true peace ; and it cannot give
what it. does not possess. At its best, its well-
meant words are ineffectual, either to confer a
right to peace, or to communicate the peace itself.
But Jesus does both. The right to peace, which
did not belong to men as sinners, He purchases
for them by his atoning blood, and now by this
deed of gift leaves it to them as a bequest for ever.
The peace itself, as profession and experience, He
imparts to his people by continuous gift, carried
on to the end of time. Thus definitely are dis
tinguished these two sentences, "Peace I leave
with you," — " My peace I give unto you," crowned
with the assurance to which our hearts respond,
" Not as the world giveth, give I unto you."

vin THE BENEDICTION OF PEACE 187
Great has been the effect of this word of
promise, as teaching, as well as in fulfilment. It
has established the word " Peace " in the heart
of the Church as expressing the ideal character of
Christian happiness and the rightful condition
of believers. " Grace and peace " become keynotes
of the Apostolic teaching, and are for ever united
in all prayer and benediction. Peace represents
a restful, satisfying state, an essential condition
for more exalted experiences, being itself of more
solid value than them all. If it be asked in what
it consists, we may perhaps rightly distinguish its
constituent parts, as the peace of conscience, the
peace of character, and the peace of trust. There
is peace in a conscience, relieved from guilt,
reconciled to God, and restored to its rightful
supremacy. There is peace in a character brought
into order and harmony, in which the disquieting
power of worldly and carnal lusts, of pride, of
selfishness, of evil tempers and unworthy feelings,
has given place to the reign of nobler principles
and purer affections. Finally, there is peace in
that trust and confidence in God, which casts all
care upon Him, simply relies upon his promises,
leaves all things in his hand, and is sure that He
does all things well. If these be elements of
peace, each one of them is the gift of Christ ; for
from Him they all proceed, and in Him are
found.

188 THE DISCOURSES chap.
They can best analyse this peace, who find it in
themselves, and know from experience wherein it
consists; and these are not few: for no promise
has been more extensively or distinctly fulfilled.
This peace is the proper heritage of those who are
in Christ, and is a natural effect of the faith which
unites them to Him. The presence of it is often
felt and recognised by others at their side, who
will express their own desire for a blessing which
they see to be real, though strangers to it them
selves. It is enjoyed in different measures by
different minds, and by the same mind in varying
degrees; often in the highest degree in circum
stances which naturally would impair or destroy
it. In biographies which disclose something of
the inward history, we read from time to time the
thankful record of an unusual sense of peace, at
some time when it was likely that the mind
would be harassed with anxieties, or the spirit
overwhelmed by some dreaded trial. The voice
which spake in the upper room still speaks
within: " My peace I give unto you ; let not your
heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid."
The last word (_et\taTc_) is an admonition of
no small importance, both to those who heard it
then, and to us who read it now. It expresses
the worst effect of the troubling of the heart, not
the natural emotion of fear, but the cowardly
yielding to it. It is the craven spirit which

viii THE BENEDICTION OF PEACE 189
shrinks from duty, loses hope, abandons what it
should hold fast, surrenders to the enemy, or
deserts to his side. " Fear," says the Book of
Wisdom, "is nothing else but a betraying of the
succours which reason offereth " (xii. 17) ; and
the fear here spoken of is nothing else but a be
traying of the succours which are offered by grace.
Only in this place in the New Testament does the
verb occur ; but the substantive (SetXt'a) is used by
St. Paul in his farewell charge to Timothy : " God
hath not given us the spirit of fearfulness, but of
power " (2 Tim. i. 7) ; and in the Apocalypse the
adjective (SetXot) designates those who head the
sad procession of the lost (xxi. 8). The adjective
describes a character, but the verb only a condition,
which, as in St. Peter's case, may be passing, but
is sin at the time, and danger for the future.
Observing that the opening sentence of the dis
course (" Let not your heart be troubled ") is here
repeated and fortified, we understand that all en
closed within these limits is to be taken as a whole
in itself, and that the intervening words compose a
divine antidote to that troubling and desolation of
heart which the Lord's departure would suggest.
To the disciples the discourse was revelation and
consolation, and so it is to us at this day; while
all benedictions, pronounced in the Church, and
mutual words of peace, are continuations to the
end of time of this Benediction of Peace.

190 THE DISCOURSES

CHAPTER IX
THE ACCEPTED END
v. 28-31
It is probably after a momentary pause that the
Speaker reverts to the communications He has
made, with regard, first, to their present impres
sion ; secondly, to their future use ; and thirdly, to
their near cessation.
He looked on the hearers and saw that they
were sad. The account given of the departure had
scarcely reached their minds; to them it was de
parture and nothing more.
" Ye heard how I said to you, I go away, and I come unto
you. If ye loved me, ye would have rejoiced, because I go
unto the Father ; for the Father is greater than I " (28).
"If ye loved Me," He says. They did love
Him, but with unenlightened love. The word is
spoken after the manner of men who seem to re
prove in order to console those whom they are
leaving. He has now told them whither He is
going — "to the Father" — surely an elevating
thought ! a proper cause of joy for his sake, and

ix THE ACCEPTED END 191
also for their own. The life which He has begun
with them and for them will be raised to a higher
level ; " for the Father is greater than I."
This is not a pronouncement on the mystery of
the Godhead in respect to the relations of the
Divine Persons in the ever-blessed Trinity* In all
that is now said Jesus speaks from the standpoint
of the present. He is the Messenger who is sent
from the Father, the Way that leads to the Father,
the Presence which shews the Father, the Son who
does the commandment of the Father. The going
to the Father is itself a part of the great economy
for which He became incarnate ; and in that econ
omy the Father is greater, as being the Author
and the End of all that has been done, is being
done, and is yet to be done in it ; and thus the
word " for the Father is greater than I " sums up
this whole situation and gives a supreme reason
for rejoicing in the exaltation of the Son of Man
to the right hand of God.1
1 In further illustration of the view here taken I append
the two following extracts : —
1. " This was the great stronghold of the Arians, by which
they sought to prove that the Son was not God, but the highest
creature of God. But SS. Athanasius, Augustin, Basil, and
the rest of the Fathers answer them, that Christ is here speak
ing of Himself, not as God, but as man. And, that it is so, is
plain from this, that He gives the reason why He is going to
the Father: "because," He says, " the Father is greater than
I." Now Christ goeth to the Father, in that, as man, He
ascendeth Into Heaven. For as God He i_ alway in heaven

192 THE DISCOURSES

This exaltation the disciples would some day
understand, and then their love would rejoice.
And so it was at once. We read that when they
saw Him go, they worshipped Him, and returned to
Jerusalem with great joy, and were continually in
the temple, praising and blessing God (Luke xxiv.
53). But the time of understanding was not yet ;
why, then, speak now of a rejoicing which they
with the Father; wherefore S. Augustin saith, "He went, in
that He was in one place. He remained, in that He was every
where." — a Lapide, in loc.
2. "The Son, although of divine essence, and 6/wovo-ios with
the Father, nevertheless was, and is, and remains, subordinated
to the Father ; since the Son, as Organ, as Commissioner of the
Father, as Intercessor with the Father, has received his whole
power, even in the kingly office from the Father (xvii. 5), and
after the complete accomplishment of the work committed to
Him will restore it to the Father (1 Cor. xv. 28)." — Meyer,
Handbook on Gospel of St. John, in loc.
The patristic literature on the passage is abundant. Bishop
Westcott, in his " Additional Note," gives judiciously chosen
extracts from twenty early writers, and sums up as follows : —
3. "If we turn from these comments to the text of St. John,
it will be seen that (1) The Lord speaks throughout the Gospel
with an unchanged and unchangeable Personality ; the I (Jyti)
is the same in viii. 58, x. 30, xiv. 28. (2) We must believe
that there was a certain fitness in the Incarnation of the Son.
(3) This fitness could not have been an accident, but must have
belonged, if we may so speak, to his true Personal Nature.
(4) So far then as it was fit that the Son should be incarnate
and suffer, and not the Father, it is possible for us to under
stand that the Father is greater than the Son, as Son, in Per
son, but not in Essence. Among English writers, it is suffi
cient to refer to Bull ; and to Pearson ' On the Creed ' (Art.
1), whose notes, as always, contain a treasure of patristic
learning." •

ix THE ACCEPTED END 193
could not feel? Such words could not be quite
without effect at the moment ; but they will serve
to assist the faith of the future.
"Now I have told you before it come to pass, that when it
is come to pass, ye may believe " (29).
When the departure shall have taken place, and
the new order of things supervened, then these
and other like words will rise to remembrance, as
informations and reinforcements to faith. They
will assist the disciples to " believe," in the sense
of apprehending things unseen, and beholding
their Master, no longer seen on earth, as received
into the glory of the Father. Faith will follow
the course of the history through fulfilment of
predictions here to fulfilment of predictions there ;
and the words will have their effect in the time to
which they apply. The principle of teaching in
the interests of the future, and with a view to later
stages of intelligent use, is illustrated throughout
these discourses, and is again and again affirmed.
lt is a principle in all education, though exception
ally prominent in this great example of it.
Preparatory words are precious, more so when
they are being spoken for the last time ; and these
communications are close upon their end.
"No longer shall I speak many things with you (as I
have done in the past), for the Prince of the world
cometh." N

194 THE DISCOURSES chap.
There is an end to converse and companionship
in the events of this very night. The attack is to
be delivered. The world in its powers, popular,
ecclesiastical, and civil, is rising up to overthrow
Him who stands alone to bear the shock. But
there is a darker power behind, which his eye
beholds and his words reveal. "The Ruler of
this world cometh." Already has the Evil One
been thus described (xii. 31), and the name is a
revelation of fear. " This world," in revolt from
its true Sovereign, has fallen under another Ruler,
who has become so by its own concession and
invitation, and who uses and impels it for his own
malignant ends. The former saying had taken in
the conflict on the whole, and declared its issue.
" Now is the judgment of this world : now shall
the Prince of this world be cast out." But the
issue is not yet. It is the conflict which is at
hand. Now he " comes." Doubtless he is always
active and on the watch ; but he watches for op
portunities, and they arrive. They occur through
the passions of his servants, or by critical con
junctures of circumstances, or by special permis
sion from above. In the manifestation of the Son
of God there were two great onsets, — one at its
opening, the other at its close. In the solitude of
the desert, "the Tempter came to him," if so
be he might destroy the virtue of the heavenly
mission before it was begun. He came to test the

ix THE ACCEPTED END 195
human righteousness of Jesus by subtle insinua
tion and direct approaches to his spirit. It was
vain; and it only remains that another kind of
attack should be tried. All the subservient powers
of the world shall be called into action ; and the
undertaking, which could not be arrested by in
ward temptation, shall be crushed by violence,
and extinguished in anguish, shame, and death.
For this purpose it is said, "the Prince of the
world cometh " ; but it is added, " and in me he
hath nothing " (ev ifiol ovk e^et o. _eV), nothing at
all of what he finds in the world, nothing that has
any moral kindred with his nature, and by which
he might have claim or right upon Me. Satan
has claims on men, as he has access to them, —
rightful claims, in so far as created by their own
sin ; for men are victims because they are ac
complices. But here is sinless humanity. The
Tempter ranging round the holy soul, to seek the
smallest inlet, had found none. There is, then,
nothing here belonging to his dominion, which
can give him right or power to assail.
Why, then, should this attack be suffered? or
why submitted to? If so, it can only be by free
consent and voluntary act; and for that there
must be some sufficient reason. So there is, in
the one supreme motive of action recognised by
the will of Christ. The world in this case is
powerless, and its Prince is powerless.

196 . THE DISCOURSES chap.
" In me he hath nothing ; but that the world may know
that I love the Father, and as the Father gave me command
ment, so I do " (31).
The course of things is by commandment of the
Father ; but the charge was voluntarily accepted,
and is freely obeyed. So it will appear more
forcibly, an hour later, in Gethsemane. It is not
only obedience of will, it is obedience of love ;
and, what is more touching, the world itself is to
be brought to recognise this love to the Father.
The world rising up against Him, under the horrid
inspiration of its Ruler, is still the object of pity
ing thoughts. What can conquer the inspirations
of evil but the sweet force of holy love ? And that
is to be learned from the great lesson of the love
of the Father, which Jesus exhibits in his own
person and communicates by his own death. As
far as that lesson shall be learned, the world will
cease to be the world, and own the power of the
love of Christ to its own salvation.1
What a history is revealed in these brief sen
tences breaking suddenly from the heart ! What
an interpretation do they supply of the scenes
that are to follow ! What an exposure of the mys
tery of wickedness! What a disclosure of the
mystery of love ! What a testimony of the will
of the Father and of the Son concurrent in the
1 "Ut mundus desinat mundus esse ; et Patris in me bene-
placitum agnoscat salutariter." — Bengel.

ix THE ACCEPTED END 197
work of our salvation ! " Even as the Father
gave me commandment — so I do."
It is but for a moment that the Lord thus ad
verts to the ordeal on which He is entering. The
consciousness of it is present, while the mention
of it is suppressed, in order that He may devote
the last words to the consolation and instruction
of " his own whom He loved to the end."

198 THE DISCOURSES

CHAPTER X
A DIVIDING LINE
The last words have intimated the coming con
flict and the resolution to proceed ; and it is a
natural sequel. "Arise, let us go hence." This
word draws a dividing line between what has
passed already and all that may follow. The
Supper is over, including the session, which cus
tom allowed and commonly prolonged for con
versation and discourse ; a conversation, on this
occasion, of deepest interest, and a discourse of
the last importance. Now they break up from the
table, and, we should expect, with some custom
ary concluding form. The two first Evangelists
mention such an act, apparently as in the order of
things: "When they had hymned (vfivijo-avre^,
they went out into the Mount of Olives " (Matt.
xxvi. 30 ; Mark xiv. 26). Alford, in his note on
the passage, observes : —
" Here, accurately speaking, perhaps between the v/ivq-
cravres and i£rj\9ov, came in the discourses and prayers of the
Lord, in John xiv.-xvii., spoken (see note ou John xiv. 31)
without change of place, in the upper chamber. The v/_. os

A DIVIDING LINE 199

was in all probability the last part of the Hallel or great
Hallel, which consisted of Ps. cxv.-cxviii., the former part
(cxiii., cxiv.) having been sung during the meal. It is
unlikely that this took place after the solemn prayer in
John xvii."
I would only alter this suggestion by placing
the recitation of the Psalms, or some of them,
after chapter xiv. instead of before it; for there
has been no definite break in the communication
till now, when the session at supper ends, and the
liturgical act is probably to be taken as an under
stood form in rising to depart, and is by the
Evangelists immediately connected with the move
ment of the company.
But then the local question arises, as to the
place in which we should suppose the second dis
course delivered, followed immediately by the
final prayer. Commentators take different views.
Some consider that all takes place on the same
spot, Jesus delaying the departure till the moment
in which it is said (xviii. 1), " When Jesus had
spoken these words, he went forth with his dis
ciples over the brook Kedron." Others think that
" Let us go hence " forbids this idea, and that the
succeeding words were spoken at some halting-
place before crossing that boundary of the city, or
(as some maintain) in the Temple, which, it is
said, was opened by the priests at midnight. As
one leading authority is clear and strong on the

200 THE DISCOURSES chap.
question, it is right to give Bishop Westcott's own
statement of his opinion : —
" We must suppose that after these words, the Lord, with
the eleven, at once left the house, and went on the way
which finally led to Gethsemane ; consequently, that the dis
courses which follow xv.-xvii. were spoken after He had
gone from the upper room, and before He crossed the Ke
dron. The other supposition, that, after rising, He lingered
in the room as full of the thoughts of the coming events,
appears to be wholly against the obvious interpretation of
the narrative, and to disregard the clearer distinction in
character between the earlier and later discourses."
Further on in the introduction to chapter xvii.,
he says, " It is certain that the upper chamber was
left after xiv. 31," and then proceeds : —
" It is scarcely possible that chapters xv., xvi., could have
been spoken in the streets of the city. It is inconceivable
that chapter xvii. should have been spoken anywhere but in
circumstances suited to its unapproachable solemnity. One
spot alone combines all that is required to satisfy these con
ditions, — the Temple courts. The central object there was
the great golden vine, from which He derived the figure of
his own vital relation to his people; and nowhere, it is clear,
could our High Priest more fitly offer Himself, his work,
and believers to the Father, than in the one place which
God had chosen to set his name there " (p. 237).
These are telling words ; but it may be an
swered: 1. That to most readers there appears
nothing inconsistent with the narrative in the sup
position of a departure commenced and arrested;

x A DIVIDING LINE 201
and that, in resuming the discourse without break,
it rather suggests that as yet there was no great
change of scene. 2. That the different tone of
the later discourse is proper to an altered attitude
and fresh stage of action, but not necessarily to
another place. 3. That such a change is itself un
likely. The house had been chosen by the Lord
in a marked manner, as the place for the Paschal
Supper, for the institution of the Sacrament, and
for the last converse with his disciples. Why
leave it before his intended communications were
finished, and an integral and important part of
them had yet to be delivered ? 4. It must be felt
that, against the hypothesis of adjournment to the
Temple, the silence of the narrative has special
force. Such a choice, and for such reasons of
fitness as are given, could scarcely have been
passed over without a word of notice. 5. Further
more, instead of being proper to the situation, it
appears on some accounts quite out of keeping
with it. The Temple, if open to the public, would
not be the fit place for words to be heard only by
the chosen few ; and it had never been the scene
of confidences with them, but of public action as
in the centre of the nation ; and now that action
was over. Two days before, it had been the scene
of the last rejection, the stern farewell and the
predictive sentence of its fall. The Lord has done
with the people and the Temple, and has finally

202 THE DISCOURSES chap.
separated his little Church, to inaugurate the New
Covenant among them. The chosen sanctuary of
peace, not the forsaken Temple, is the fit place for
the consummation of the work.
If we set aside the idea of a visit to the Temple,
and still more, of a halt on the way through the
city, we can only read the discourse as resumed
in the same locality. Should we desire a more
particular description of the place, there seems to
me a great probability in a suggestion contained
in a footnote to Bengel's Commentary on Matt.
xxvi. 30.1 It supposes that the company not only
rose from their places and prepared to go, but
that they quitted the supper room, and were
arrested by the Lord's words in the court of the
house. Nothing could be more natural. We
know the arrangement of Jewish houses ; and this
was evidently one of no mean character (Luke
xxii. 10-12). Those who left "the great cham
ber " would find themselves in an open court,
before reaching the door which led into the street.
Here a short delay might well be made. Here
there might be " a fruitful vine upon the sides
of the house" (or, as Cheyne, "in the recesses of
the house "), Ps. cxxviii. 3, if a visible symbol be
1 " Haudimmerito existimaneris, hymnum in coenaculo adhuc
pronunciatum esse, at sermones Jesu, John xv.-xvi., necnon
preces cxvii. sub dio (v. 1) in area hospitii (si placet), intra
urbem resonasse." — Harm., p. 522.

x A DIVIDING LINE 203
sought as occasion for the first words there spoken.
Here, also, it would be under the moonlit sky that
"Jesus lifted up his eyes to heaven and said,
Father, the hour is come." Such a locality would
agree with the double impression which we receive
from the narrative, of a movement to depart, and
yet a continuance on the same spot.
But whatever took place at this moment, it
does not affect the teaching which it is the pur
pose of the Evangelist to record. He carries on
the line with a note of division, but no space of
interruption. This is more striking if read with
out the modern artificial separation by chapter
and verse. " As the Father gave me command
ment, so I do. Arise, let us go hence. I am the
true vine, and my Father is the husbandman."
If the mention of action had been interposed, it
would have diminished the sense of continuity
between the two discourses, which, as it is, the
writer seems intentionally to maintain.
The relation of the second discourse to that
which preceded is, in the first place, one of con
tinuity, consisting in the consecutive character of
the ideas. All its teaching rests on the revela
tions and promises before delivered. The doctrine
which began with " Ye believe in God, believe
also in me," had made the person of Christ to be
the medium of union with God ; and that which
began with " I will pray the Father, and he shall

204 THE DISCOURSES chap.
give you another Comforter," had made the action
of the Spirit to be the living union with Christ.
These two doctrines underlie all the deliverances
which follow.
In the second place, the relation of the latter to
the former discourse is one of development, in the
more distinctly practical direction; and in con
sequence, the language assumes a characteristic
tone of exhortation. In the former, the keynote
is consolation in view of departure ; in the latter,
it is instruction for the state which will ensue.
There, as well as here, the Speaker instructs;
here, as well as there, He consoles. But there
He is opening the view of the future to meet the
sorrows of the crisis; here He has passed into
that future, makes it his standpoint, and gives the
needful principles for its faith and experience.
He has before Him a state of things which the
hearers do not yet understand, so that He seems
to be speaking parables; but events will soon
change the scene, and then all will be plain, and
the words, remembered and understood, will be
come support to the work of the Apostles, and
principles of life to them and to the Church for
ever. These sayings, then, with all their abrupt
forms and sympathetic tones, are to be read, not
as separate expressions, but as forecasting inter
pretations of the ensuing history, and fundamental
revelations of the truths by which it is to be

x A DIVIDING LINE 205
guided and blessed. They are also to be read in
the light of another principle, already noted as
characteristic of the words of Jesus ; namely, the
combination of an immediate and a remote inten
tion, here exhibited in the adaptation to the special
exigencies of the Apostles, and at the same time
to the general needs of believers.
It remains that, before entering on the second
discourse, we endeavour to distinguish and desig
nate the principal topics of this divine instruction ;
which is at once the more needful and tiie more
difficult to do, on account of (what may be de
scribed as) the intertwinings of thought by the
applications of the same truths in different con
nexions. The fundamental subject is that of the relations
of believers to Jesus Christ in respect of practical
life under the coming dispensation ; and these
relations may be distinguished as follows : —
1. The relation of members who share in his
life. 2. That of friends who share in his love.
3. That of followers who share in his work.
4. That of adherents who share in his spirit.
These topics are not separated formally, but
interpenetrate one another; yet are they distin
guished by observable succession in the discourse.
1. Thus the relation to Jesus Christ of mem
bers who share in his life, and thereby bring forth

206 THE DISCOURSES chap, x
fruit unto God, is set forth in the similitude of
the vine and its branches (vs. 1-8).
2. The relation of friends who share in his
love and maintain its continuance and manifest
its effect by love to each other is presented in
vs. 9-17.
3. The relation of followers who share in his
work towards the world, and therefore share with
Him in its enmity and in the trials of conflict, is
given in vs. 18-xvi. 3.
4. The relation of adherents on whom He be
stows a share in his own spirit through the active
association of the Holy Ghost, as Comforter, Ad
vocate, and Teacher, is expressed in xvi. 4-15.
Then follow answers to thoughts which have
been raised in the minds of the hearers, final
words of interpretation of the crisis, renewed
warnings, promises, assurances, closing with grave
warning and sad intimation of desertion, which
passes again into a concluding note of peace and
confidence and victory.

SECOND DISCOURSE
XV
chapter XI. Life and Fruitfulness ...... 1-8
XII. Love and Friendship . . 9-16
XIII. Enmity of the World . . 17-25
XIV. Witness to the World . 26-27

XVI
XV. Treatment by the World . . . 1-4
XVI. Conviction op the World 5-11
XVII. Illumination op the Church . . 12-15
XVIII. Sorrow and Joy  16-22
XIX. Intercourse op the Future . . 22-27
XX. The Last Words ... . 28-33
207

CHAPTER XI
LIFE AND FRUITFULNESS
xv. 1-8
SUCH interruption as occurred was brief. The
Lord resumed his discourse, and the Evangelist
continues his report. For, not accidentally, nor
even in loose connexion, do the following instruc
tions ensue, but in necessary sequence to the pre
vious words of promise, as giving the principles
and outlines of the state which is to be. The
first principle is that of life, generated by mem
bership in Christ, maintained by a responsive will,
proved and perfected by moral fruitfulness. It is
taught, as it could best be taught, in a figurative
form, akin to the former teaching by parable.
" I am the true vine, and my Father is the husbandman.
Every branch in me that beareth not fruit, he taketh it
away : and every branch that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it,
that it may bear more fruit. Already ye are clean because
of the word which I have spoken unto you. Abide in me
and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself,
except it abide in the vine; so neither can ye, except ye
abide in me. I am the vine, ye are the branches; he that
O 209

210 THE DISCOURSES . chap.
abideth in me, and I in him, the same beareth much fruit :
for apart from me ye can do nothing. If a man abide not
in me, he is cast forth as a branch and is withered ; and
they gather them, and cast them into the fire and they are
burned. If ye abide in me and my words abide in you, ask
whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein
is my Father glorified that ye bear much fruit ; and so shall
ye be my disciples."
Was there anything in the actual scene which
gave occasion for this figurative teaching? That
question is suggested by the suddenness of its
introduction and the vividness of its detail, and
by the Lord's frequent habit of deriving the lan
guage which He employed from objects before
the eye. Those who suppose the discourse in the
Temple find the suggestion in the great golden
vine over the gate (though that is wanting in
the. life, which is the very point of comparison).
Those who place it on the way suppose a passage
through a vineyard, possibly with flickering lights
from little heaps of branches burning, — a scene by
no means likely on the city side of the Kedron.
Those who keep to the first locality have thought
of vines on the wall of the house (scarcely natural,
in the room, though it might be so in the court
yard). Yet these excursions of imagination are
hardly necessary in respect of an emblem so
familiar to the minds of the hearers, as represent
ing ideas akin to those which were now to be im-

xi LIFE AND FRUITFULNESS 211
pressed. The vine was of old a recognised symbol
of the life of Israel, ever recurring as such in the
Old Testament Scriptures,1 appearing on Macca-
bean coinage, and established in permanent and
conspicuous form in the Temple itself.
The vine offered itself as a national symbol,
from its being a special product of the coun
try, from the value set upon it, and from familiarity
with the methods of its cultivation. As, of all
trees, its growth was most conspicuously for the
sake of its branches, and its branches for the sake
of its fruit ; so it best served to represent a chosen
stock, a planting of the Lord, the ramifications of
a common life, and the purpose of moral fruitful
ness for which the planting was intended. In
regard to such an emblem, external suggestion at
the moment seems needless, and indeed would be
less suitable to this deliberate and predetermined
instruction than to such as might be more casually
given in converse by the wayside.
It is to express ideas closely related to those
which it had always symbolised, that the Lord
employs this imagery, in the way not of mere
application, but of perfect and predestined fulfil
ment. " I am the vine, the true one " (i) a/_7r eAo?
r) dXndivr']') is equivalent to, I am He in whom is
concentrated the substance and the life which
were but shadowed in the chosen people. From
1 E.g. Ps. Ixxx., Is. v., Jer. xi., Hos. x., etc.

212 THE DISCOURSES chap.
the central but decayed stock of that people the
Christ was to arise, as a shoot from the stump of
a felled tree, which should spring and spread in
fulness of life, and develop the fruits of righteous
ness and peace. " There cometh forth a twig out
of the stump of Jesse, and a shoot from its roots
bringeth forth fruit; and the Spirit of Jehovah
descendeth upon him," etc. (Is. xi. 1, 2, Delitzsch).
Prophecy hangs in clusters on this " vine of
David " ; 1 and the passage before us presents the
Person who is thus represented, and in whom all
will be fulfilled.
It is not for ornament, but for more profound
and effective teaching, that this metaphoric lan
guage is employed. Spiritual subjects often re
quire figurative expression; and plain words, as
they are called, are often less plain from being-
prosaic. The emblem still carries more meaning
to the mind than the explanation of it does. One
cannot but wonder at the amount of truth which
is conveyed in this brief imagery; truth con
cerning Christ and his members, concerning the
common life that is, in Him and them, concerning
JIn the scanty notes of Eucharistic service in the " Dida-
ach_," the following expression occurs : " We thank thee, 0 our
Father, for the holy Vine of David thy child, which thou hast
made known to us by thy child Jesus " (ch. ix.). It is inter
esting, as suggesting Judseo-Christian associations of thought
and language transmitted probably from Paschal forms and
customs.

xi LIFE AND FRUITFULNESS 213
its separate realisation in individual souls, concern
ing the union which is its essence and the fruits
which are its end, and concerning all these things,
as they are affected by the active government of
God, and by the freedom of the will of man.
These are subjects prolific of questions and dis
cussions ; and this allegory gives the principles of
the teaching of Christ upon them. Naturally,
then, its expressions have been often invoked and
put to various uses in Arian and Pelagian con
troversies, in those of Reformation times, and
indeed of all periods of the Church. But if con
troversy has fastened on these pregnant sayings,
that is only incidental, and lies outside the present
study of them, which regards only the purpose for
which they are spoken, a purpose of edification by
instruction and exhortation, by admonition and
warning. As in other connexions of thought (" I am the
light of the world — I am the bread of life," and
the like), Jesus here fixes the eye of faith on his
own person ; but in the present saying He regards
Himself as inclusive of his members, who partici
pate in his own life, and, as it were, complete it.
He says not, "I am the root — I am the stem,"
but " I am the vine — and ye are the branches,"
presenting Himself and the Church as one organic
whole. Thus we see in Jesus the Incarnate Son,
a new stock of humanity, planted of God in the

214 THE DISCOURSES chap.
earth, able to expand his own life over others, and
so to include their lives in his own and (if we may
use the language here suggested) to ramify Him
self in them.
This capacity is the consequence of the con
junction in his person of the human and the
divine nature; for by the one He enters into
union with us in the flesh, and by the others,
communicates Himself to us as "a quickening
Spirit." This is well expressed in the words of
the old Belgian commentator, rehearsing also the
opinions of earlier writers.
" Christ has compared Himself to a vine, not as He is
God, but as man. For so men are grafted into Him as
branches : for these are of the same nature and kind as the
Vine. Wherefore S. Hilary says (Lib. 9, de Trin.), Christ
to this end assumed flesh, that we fleshly men might as
branches be grafted into Him as the Vine. But yet the
flesh of Christ would not have had the power of producing
vine-branches, i.e. faithful and holy people, unless the God
head had been united to it. Wherefore Cyril says that
Christ was the Vine by reason of his Godhead ; and S.
Augustin says that, although Christ would not have been
the Vine, except He had been man, yet He would not have
imparted grace to the branches, unless he had been God "
(Corn, a Lapide in loc). *¦
In passing from the vine to the branches, we
miss the precision of language which in Greek
and Latin distinguish vine-branches by a word
proper to themselves ; J for where vine-culture is
1 kXiJ/wi. a, palmites.

xi LIFE AND FRUITFULNESS 215
a common and important industry, it naturally
creates a vocabulary of its own. Our word
(branches) belongs to trees in general, not spe
cially to the vine. It also may represent the
larger limbs, not so distinctly the smaller and
more numerous shoots, such as may be broken off
or grafted in, and on which, in fact, the fruit
appears. Bearing the more exact language in
mind, we shall see more clearly the application to
individual life and membership. Whatever use
we may make of this imagery in regard to
churches, or collective Christian life, regarded as
larger limbs or main rods of the vine, it is to the
cases of personal life that this teaching is pri
marily addressed.
Coming next to the relation of the branches to
the vine, we observe that in the view of Christ
there is a membership which is real, and so ac
knowledged by Him, though comprehending dif
ferent conditions and results. Some would not
recognise any real relation to Christ apart from
that of vital and saving faith. Jesus does. The
branch which beareth not fruit, and the branch
which does, He describes alike as '¦'¦branches in
me." Membership in the Church is in some 'real
sense a membership in Christ, and the sacramental
relation is a great fact, even where the spiritual
relation fails. It is a different position from that
of nature as to rights, capacities, and responsi-

216 THE DISCOURSES chap.
bilities, all which are now in Christ; and it in
volves a treatment proper to itself. Yet is it a
preliminary relation ; and if it attains to nothing
more, ends in a " taking away."
The issue is here made to turn upon the bear
ing or not bearing of fruit ; and that, of course,
allows for time and opportunity, and includes the
process as well as the result; for the branch is
"bearing fruit," even before the fruit is formed,
or is " not bearing," in its provisional stage of life.
In regard to this history two lines of thought are
opened, ¦ — one, that on the dealings of God, repre
sented by the methods of the husbandman; the
other, that on the duty of man, concentrated in
the charge, " Abide in me."
"My Father is the husbandman. Every branch in me
that beareth not fruit, he taketh it away ; and every branch
that beareth fruit, he cleanseth it, that it may bring forth
more fruit."
It is a compendious account of discrimination
both in judgment and treatment ; in judgment, for
it divides the branches in the vine according to the
presence or absence of fruit-bearing life ; of treat
ment, for the barren he takes away, the fruitful he
cleanses. The taking away is that out of a real
connexion previously existing, the capabilities of
which had been enjoyed in vain ; and, after a time
of opportunity and sufferance, the connexion is
over. The cleansing is a treatment of considerate

xi LIFE AND FRUITFULNESS 217
care, which those acquainted with the methods of
vine-culture would readily interpret.1 It includes
not only the use of the pruning-knife and the
plucking away of too luxuriant foliage, suggesting
the discipline of painful trials ; but also the gentler
abrasions and ablutions for removal of mildew or
parasites, suggesting purifications by milder cor
rections, and the searching influence of the Word,
and the gradual cleansing of grace.
This continued cleansing belongs to those who
are essentially clean,2 who have not now to seek
the source of purity and life, but to abide in it.
So it is with these disciples. As Stier has ex
pressed it, " Their connexion with Christ through
their first faith has made them vine-branches ;
and that is their first fundamental purity." Such
is the import of the address.
" Already ye are clean, because of the word
which I have spoken to you."
They were clean, not by nature, but because of
the Word, received and assimilated, which had
1 In illustration of the use of terms of vine-culture to express
action in public life, Meyer quotes (JEschin. adv. Ctesiph. 166),
dp.Te\o6pyovcri. rives tIjv w6\lv, dvarer^Kacn rd /cX^ara rd tou
2 In the English, "takes away," "purges," "clean," we
miss the etymological connexion of thought given in the Greek
(atpet, KaBalpei, KdDapos ; airei, cath-airei, catharos). The first
two verbs express a likeness, which becomes a contrast ; in
both cases a taking away; but in the former, of the thing itself,
in the latter, of that which adheres to it.

218 THE DISCOURSES

become to them, not a mere means of purification,
but the cause,, or source of it, a truth which seems
implied in the construction (Sid tov X070.). It
is a real but not a final cleansing;1 rather, it
qualifies for that after treatment which is effectual
for " more fruit " ; and we see, from the discovery
of their then condition, how truly this was needed.
For them further cleansing and fruit-bearing
will ensue, but the first duty, the fundamental
necessity, is contained in the charge, "Abide in
me." It is a charge repeated, insisted on, and urgently
impressed, by reasoning, exhortation, and warning.
This necessarily supposes the free will of those
who receive it, able to be exercised in obeying or
disregarding it ; which indeed is a condition sup
posed in the entire teaching of Scripture. Zeal
for the truths of the grace and faithfulness of God
have led some to set aside the very nature of the
being who is to be the subject of them ; but
doctrines of irresistible and indefectible grace are
obviouslj' and absolutely irreconcilable with these
words of Jesus, which call for conscious choice,
and deliberate intention, and active will and volun
tary perseverance, and contemplate possible perils
in regard to the relations which his people are to
maintain with Himself.
1 "Jam vos mundi estis, mundi scilicet, atque mwidandi"
(Aug.).

xi LIFE AND FRUITFULNESS 219
These relations are mutual. " Abide in me and
I in you." The command here precedes the
promise ; but the promise is so incorporated with
the command as to make both one in fulfilment.
A command contemplates action, and addresses
itself to the reason and the will. " Ye are in me
and I in you " (xiv. 20) describes a state. " Abide
in me and I in you " intends action, the continuous
action by which the state is realised. This saying
took a strong hold on the mind of the Evangelist,
as we see from its frequent recurrence in his
Epistle; and it is there evident that the anxiety
about " abiding in Christ " has been made more
intense by many disappointing experiences in the
first age of Christianity.
If it be asked, How is this charge to be fulfilled ?
In what does this abiding consist? the answer
may be given, that it is an internal act, involving
external aids and expressions. It is done by the
energies of the soul, and the habitual activities of
faith, by returning, coming, cleaving to Christ, by
standing fast in his word as " heard from the be
ginning," by direct intercourse with Him and with
the Father in the Spirit, by participation in works
which associate us with Him, by loyal continuance
in the unity of his Church, and by use of the
means which He has appointed, especially of the
holy sacrament, in which this union is renewed
and sealed. These are ways and means of " abiding
in Christ."

220 THE DISCOURSES chap.
The necessity of it is here impressed in respect
of fruitfulness, which is the result and test of
vitality. For he who abides in Christ is declared
to be one in whom Christ abides ; and it is the
life of Christ which brings forth fruit. This les
son is enforced by pregnant argument and strong
assertion. " As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself except it abide
in the vine ; so neither can ye except ye abide in me. I am
the vine, ye are the branches : he that abideth in me, and I
in him, the same bringeth forth much fruit : for apart from
me ye can do nothing " (4-6).
" Excellently," says Bengel, " does this place set
forth the distinction of nature and of grace."
Consequently it has been largely handled and
variously employed in the questions and contro
versies arising out of that distinction. Serious as
these are in themselves, and necessary in their
times, we need not advert to them here. They
have probably done as much to mystify as to edify
those who have been occupied in them, and have
tended, in the attempt at logical development, on
the one side, to a depreciation of the personal and
responsible will in man, to which this whole dis
course is addressed ; or on the other, to an opinion
of natural sufficiency and a virtual detachment
from Christ, which it is the aim of the exhortation
to preclude. Excellently, indeed, is the subject
here presented, in words which at once recognise

xi LIFE AND FRUITFULNESS 221
the essential prerogative of nature, and assert the
indispensable necessity of grace.
The subject here is very definite. It is not the
relation of the human being to the Eternal Word
in respect of all moral action, but that of the
Christian to Christ in respect of the fruits of
spiritual life. The " ye " who are addressed are
members of the Church, regarded as branches in
the vine ; and all that is said is within the revealed
economy under which they are. The branch must
abide in the vine, and that by a true and vital
inherence, in order to its bearing fruit which in
nature and quality is really fruit of the vine ; i.e.1
that evangelical righteousness (supernatural, as
old writers used to call it) which cannot be orig-
1 Christ in this place makes his simile to consist only in this,
that as the vine-branch derives all its vigour and sap for pro
ducing grapes from the vine, so likewise must a believer draw
from the grace of Christ all the nutriment and power needful
for producing supernatural works. But there is this distinc
tion to be drawn, that a man, in that he is a rational being,
co-operates with grace, and that freely. This the branch in the
vine does not do, because it is but a piece of wood devoid of
reason. Now it is the result of man's free co-operation that
a good work is a free and human work, even as it is because of
the influx of grace that such a work becomes supernatural,
worthy of God, and pleasing to Him.
I confess, however, that the co-operation itself of free will,
is also of grace, in this sense, that unless free will were pre
vented, strengthened, and stirred up to co-operation by grace,
and unless it had auxiliary or co-operating grace, it could not
co-operate or do anything. This is the same reason by which
Christ stimulates his disciples to abide in Him. — C. a Lapide.

222 THE DISCOURSES chap.
inated from fallen human nature. This a man
cannot bring forth " from himself " (aft kavroii),
from his own capabilities and resources. "For,"
it is added (^&>/_t.), "apart from me ye can do
nothing " ; i.e. in a state of severance from Me, or
in action that is separate from Me, ye can accom
plish nothing, nothing of the kind intended. But
this sentence goes beyond the applications of it.
To use Godet's words, " The theme which Jesus
here develops is not that of the impotence of the
natural man, but that of the fruitlessness of the
believer left to his own powers. Yet it is evident
that the second of these truths rests upon the
first." That is true ; for the fruitlessness of the
believer in the case supposed is but the result of
the incompetence of nature. Thus, " Without
me ye can do nothing" remains as a first prin
ciple of Christianity, and a fundamental con
sciousness of the believer, a consciousness exem
plified in Apostolic experience, and endorsed in
many a suggestive saying. " We are not sufficient
of ourselves to think anything as of ourselves " ;
" I laboured . . . yet not I, but. the grace of God
which was with me " ; "I live, yet not I, but
Christ, liveth in me."
The lesson of spiritual inherence in Christ is
further impressed by the contrasted history which
was implied in the words, " Apart from me ye
can do nothing." "If a man abide not in me,"

xi LIFE AND FRUITFULNESS 223
whether by open apostasy, or by silent unbelief,
or by an inward deadness of soul, — if it be so
with him, — what then ? Of the issue of this
Christless, fruitless, lifeless state, the symbolism
supplied a vivid picture in the common dealing
with worthless branches and in the familiar scenes
in vineyards. Such a man " was cast forth as a
branch, and it was withered ; and they collect
them and cast them into the fire, and they burn."
Two stages of the sad story are indicated by two
pairs of expressions, given in different tenses,1 —
the first regarded as having occurred ; the second,
as ensuing. The two first words speak for them
selves : " cast outside, and withered." They were
at that very time exemplified in the lost member
of that holy company, now cast forth outside it,
and his soul withered by disappointed worldliness
and the rancour of discontent. By other charac
ters and in other ways the like result is reached ;
and round the true Vine the ground has been
often strewed with branches cast out and withered.
Sad is the first word representing severance —
severance in fact, sometimes, also, in form — from
the communion of the faithful and from the
means of holy influence, and from the position
where there is still hope. More sadly sounds the
1 The aorists (/_«'"_, ^ .# ., -f»jpn>'.ij) express the point of
view taken by the foreseeing mind of the Speaker, in which all
is seen as having already happened.

224 THE DISCOURSES chap.
second word in the ears of any one who has
watched deterioration of spiritual character, and
the process of a soul growing sere and shrivelled,
under the power of the world, or alienation from
the truth. These things are within the sphere
of observation; those which follow in the next
process are beyond it. They belong to a final
period, and are the work of other agents, known
from former teachings as the angels of judgment,
who sever and gather and cast into the fire that
which, in final issue and in the sight of the all-
seeing Judge, is found to be false and worthless.
Short is the parenthesis of needful warning;
and then the Lord reverts to the happier case
with which He had begun, " He that abideth in
me, the same bringeth forth much fruit." Now
He applies it to the hearers, and by a few. addi
tional touches makes the abiding more explicit
and the fruitfulness more sweet.
"If ye abide in me, and my words abide in you, ask
whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done unto you. Herein is
my Father glorified, that ye bear much fruit, and so shall ye
be my disciples " (7, 8).
He, then, who abides in Christ is one in whom
the words of Christ abide. His words (pijfiara)
taken as principles of life, guides of thought, and
motives of action, are breathing in that man's
heart. To such a state is assigned the great privi-

xi LIFE AND FRUITFULNESS 225
lege of prevailing prayer, with all its manifold
effects. " Ask " (the reading alrrjo-ao-Oe instead of
alrrjaecrde, ye shall ask, is the more approved),
"Ask whatsoever ye will, and it shall be done
unto you." It is a charge and a promise of gen
erosity truly divine. But we hear it as addressed
to a will that is prompted by the indwelling
words, and to desires pertaining to the life in
Christ. Thus the faith by which a man abides
in Him is neither blank nor silent. It is thought
ful, as informed by his words ; it is prayerful, as
expectant of his promise. As bearing on Christian
fruitfulness, how comprehensive is the promise !
how unrestricted is the command ! Can we hear
it without sadness ? Why, in so many of us, has
so large a conception been answered by such poor
results? We are humbled in the presence of
these words ; for they reprove the asking and the
will to ask, which should be so much greater than
they are. We seem to hear St. Paul's remon
strance, as if from the lips of the Lord, " Ye are
not straitened in me, but ye are straitened in your
own hearts. Now for a recompense in the same
(I speak as unto my children), be ye also enlarged"
(2 Cor. vi. 12).
To this enlargement in will and prayer the
" much fruit " is attached. This is a productive
ness which appears in the formation of character
as well as in the activity of work. It appears in

226 THE DISCOURSES chap.
the development and manifestation of faith and
love, of righteousness and truth, of meekness and
patience, of generosity and devotion, of all Christ
like dispositions and habits, as well as in acts of
service to God and man, in labours and conflicts,
in conversion of sinners and influence on the
world, in promotion of the Gospel and extension
of the Kingdom. Both character and work go
together to compose those "fruits of righteous
ness, which are by Jesus Christ unto the glory
and praise of God" (Phil. i. 11).
Those Apostolic words return an articulate
echo to this personal teaching of the Lord con
cerning fruits of righteousness — which are only
by Him — and which are to the glory of God.
That last thought is here impressed as the supreme
motive of believers. It had been so impressed in
the first teaching : " Let your light so shine before
men that they may see your good works and
glorify your Father which is in heaven." It is so
in this last teaching : " Herein is my Father glo
rified that ye bear much fruit." 1 This was the
motive of the life of Jesus, and so of the much
fruit which it produced; and his disciples must
1 The sentence is somewhat involved, but the meaning is
plain: "In this (asking — obtaining) is my Father glorified,
seeing it is to the end that ye may bear much fruit " ; and the
arrangement has the effect of connecting the glorification of the
Father more immediately with the divine action in originating
the result.

xi LIFE AND FRUITFULNESS 227
learn of Him the same motive and the same pro
ductive life. " So," He says, " shall ye be my
disciples " ; or more literally, " And ye shall be
come my disciples." Such they were already;
but there are degrees of discipleship, in proportion
as the lessons of the Master are fully learned and
more worthily exemplified. So it was with these
first adherents. True disciples they were, and
more advanced disciples they soon became, real
ising the ideal in themselves and also before the
world. The title is in a special sense their own,
as the original and normal Disciples, and it remains
their own to all generations. There is a gracious
forecast of their future character and work, and a
tone of affectionate recognition of it, in the closing
words, " And ye shall become my disciples."

228 THE DISCOURSES

CHAPTER XII
LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP
xv. 9-16
There was in the last words a tone of gracious
appropriation ; and so the discourse passes natu
rally from the life of Christ in his members to
the love of Christ to his friends.
Indeed, the last is part of the first ; for healthful
vitality and productive energy are not the whole
of life. A main part of our nature lies blank
and barren without the genial warmth and mutual
play of the affections. It would be so in spiritual,
as it sometimes is in natural, experiences. But
our Lord will not have it so, and He adds to the
charge of abiding in his life the attendant lesson
of abiding in his love.
"Even as the Father hath loved me, I also have loved
you ; abide ye in my love. If ye keep my commandments,
ye shall abide in my love ; even as I have kept my Father's
commandments, and abide in his love. These things have I
spoken unto you, that my joy may be in you, and that your
joy may be fulfilled. This is my commandment, that ye
love one another, even as I have loved you. Greater love

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP 229

hath no man than this, that a man lay down his life for his
friends. Ye are my friends, if ye do the things which I
command you. No longer do I call you servants, for the
servant knoweth not what his Lord doeth : but I have called
you friends ; for all things that I heard from my Father I
have made known unto you " (9-16).
Pleasant are the words, "my love," "my joy,"
" my friends " ; and they come home to our hearts
all the more, because spoken to individual men,
on whom at the moment the eye of affection rests,
the men of whom it has been said that, "having
loved his own which were in the world, he loved
them unto the end." Here is condensed a whole
history of love in the love of the Father to the
Son, the love of Jesus to his people, the love of
his people to one another; each stage being both
the source and the standard for the next. Thus
Jesus stands as the Mediator of love,1 receiving,
bestowing, transmitting it. The love of the Father
here is specially the love to the Son incarnate, to
Jesus as man. It is with this He parallels his
own love to his people, exalting thereby to the
highest point the conception of its nature and its
fulness. In the charge, " Abide in my love," that
1 " Quod ait, ' Sicut dilexit me Pater et ego dilexi vos'; non
equalltatem naturae ostendit nostras et suae, sicut est Patris et
ipsius, set gratiam qua Mediator Dei et hominum est homo
Christus Jesus. Mediator quippe monstratur cum dixit, 'Me
Pater, et ego vos.' Nam Pater diligit et nos; sed in ipso"
(Aug., in loc).

230 THE DISCOURSES chap.
meaning is plain ; for as the Father's love means
not mine to Him, but his to Me, so does my love
mean not yours to Me, but mine to you ; though
in each case the responsive love is involved. We
are to abide or continue in that love (as it is said
elsewhere, " Keep yourselves in the love of God "
(Jude 21), as one would abide in the sunshine by
keeping in the place where the sunshine falls.
The love of Christ rests on the way of obedience,
and shines along the paths of his commandments.
The keeping his commandments does not create
the love, any more than walking in sunny places
creates the sunshine ; and accordingly, the ex
hortation is not to seek or merit or obtain the
love, but to remain in it by continuing in the state
and life to which alone it belongs. Doubtless
there is great need of the admonition thus ear
nestly given. A man might wander, if he would,
from the place where sunshine falls, to follow
some divergent path, leading into shadow, then
into gloom, then into darkness ; and so has it been
with some, who in heedlessness or self-will, yield
ing to seductions of error or deceitfulness of sin,
have "turned from the holy commandment de
livered to them." It has been shown .in previous
words how, in the Gospel, commandment is inter
woven with love ; and in this place the same
truth reappears, but glorified by the most sublime
example. "If ye keep my commandments, ye

xii LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP 231
shall abide in my love ; even as I have kept my
Father's commandments, and abide in his love."
It is a touching and persuasive addition which
the Lord makes to this exhortation, when He con
tinues, " I have spoken this that my joy may be
in you, and that your joy may be fulfilled." There
is a question as to what the first clause intends ;
whether it be that the joy that I have in you may
continue (by your continuance in the truth), or
that the joy which is my own may be imparted, so
as to be in you also. It is interpreted in the latter
meaning by the form in which the same thought
recurs in the Prayer : " These things I speak in
the world, that they may have my joy fulfilled in
themselves " (xvii. 13). What is this joy which
is his and shall be theirs? Few are the notes of
joy while He is in the flesh, as compared with the
tones of sorrow. It is an exception when we
read (as in Luke x. 21), " In that hour Jesus re
joiced in spirit" (or in the Holy Spirit). That
was in view of the names of his disciples " written
in heaven," and of the effect of his own work in
the revelation of saving truth. Its nature, again,
is intimated in the joy of the good shepherd in
the recovery of that which was lost, which be
comes also the joy of his friends and neighbours.
Doubtless there was a deep and mighty joy in
the glory to the Father, the overthrow of evil,
and the salvation of men, that stirred his soul

232 THE DISCOURSES chap.
amid the sorrows of the present; but then the
scene of it lay rather in the future ; even as it is
written, " For the joy that was set before him, he
endured the cross, despising the shame " (Heb.
xii. 2). When the issue was reached, and the
results were manifested, this joy was shared by
" friends and neighbours," not only in heaven, but
in earth. How it wrought in the hearts of the
Apostles' appears in those fervent rejoicings for
salvation ministered and diffused, which abound
throughout the Epistles. We see there how true
it was that his joy was in them, and that their
own joy was fulfilled. This interpretation may
therefore stand, as given in the following para
phrase after other interpretations have been con
sidered : —
"Lastly, the words 'in you' may be taken simply just
as they stand ; thus, ' These things have I spoken unto you,'
that my joy, with which I rejoice concerning the glory
of God and the salvation of the whole world to be accom
plished by me, I may transfuse into you, as my Apostles
and fellow-workers ; and that this joy may increase as your
labours and your fruit increase ; until it be fulfilled in this
life, but yet more completely in the life to come." 1
This state of love and joy is protected and
maintained by its own laws and commandments.
This condition has been premised already, and is
now sealed by the repetition of the commandment,
1 a Lapide, p. 155.

LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP 233

most comprehensive of others, and most distinct
ive of the Gospel, which is itself an injunction of
love and joy : " It is my commandment, specially
mine (as before i) IvtoXt, r) e/ir)), that ye love
one another, as I have loved you." So the motive
and the rule, the grace and the duty, the love be
stowed and the love enjoined, are bound together.
This is the legislation of the Gospel, and in this
fashion we are " under law to Christ." x
Of the words, "As I have loved you," the
crowning evidence and exemplification is at hand.
" Greater love hath no man than this, that a man
lay down his life for his friends." No greater
proof of love can be given ; no higher standard set.
In both senses the Evangelist felt the power of
the saying, and echoed it in after days. " Hereby
know we the love, because he laid down his life
for us ; and we ought to lay down our lives for
the brethren " (1 John iii. 16). In a few hours
the act spoken of would be accomplished, and that
consciousness was in the heart of the Speaker.
Yet, in these discourses, this is the sole direct
allusion to the fact. That is a circumstance which
deserves attention, for it is an illustration of the
mind of Christ. See Him in the upper room,
and then in Gethsemane, and you feel the self-
suppression, or (may I say ?) the self-adjournment,
which love to his own imposed. To them He
1 p.}j u>v ivopos GeoC, dXX' evvopos XpurroO (1 Cor. ix. 21).

234 THE DISCOURSES chap.
dedicates these hours. Their consolation and in
struction is the business now ; and the teachings,
which are to tell on all their after life, shall not
be broken by agitating enquiries, or confused by
overwhelming thoughts. The coming event will
speak for itself. It is not kept secret, but is with
drawn from immediate notice ; and is presented
now in a single aspect, as the great act of love,
and of love to friends. It had a larger purpose
and effect. " Christ died for all," — " gave' him
self a ransom for all," — " died for the ungodly," —
"not for our sins only, but also for the whole
world." But with special intention, and in the
issue with full effect, He laid down his life for his
friends; and this is fhe thought of the moment,
while He looks on the men before Him, first
members and fit representatives of that dear com
pany, and says to them, " Ye are my friends, if ye
do the things that I command you."
Only once have we heard this address before,
in an exhortation which naturally prompted a
tone of special sympathy: "I say unto you, my
friends, be not afraid of them that kill the body "
(Luke xii. 4). But the relation had ever subsisted
in a measure, both with these men, and with others,
like the family of Bethany, in the kindly inter
course of the past ; and the title is now conferred
because the reason given for it exists as never
before, in the communications and confidences of
these closing hours.

xn LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP 235
" No longer do I call you servants; for the servant know
eth not what his lord doeth : but I have called you friends ;
for all things that I heard from my Father I have made
known unto you."
Servants (SovXot, bond-servants) they were, and
servants they continued ; and the title was dear
to them, as descriptive of their place in the great
household, and of the employment which was
honour and joy. And so they loved to use it, and
place it in the first line of their writings, " Simon
Peter, a servant of Jesus Christ " (1 Pet. i. 1) ;
" Jude, a servant of Jesus Christ " (v. 1) ; " Paul,
a servant of Jesus Christ" (Rom. i. 1). If they
had ceased to be servants, they had ceased to be
friends. The familiar attitude, which some have
thought to be Christian, disqualifies for the Mas
ter's friendship. But true servants of the Lord
of all become, by his own grace, his friends. He
calls them so because He makes them such, by
the confidential terms to which He admits them.
The servant (8ovXo<;'), as such, knows not what
his lord is doing ; for he knows only the task set
him, and just does as he is told. He is not
informed of the purposes, nor associated with the
interests, to which his allotted task contributes.
But if he be so by the master's will, a great
change has come. The work may be still the
same ; but now it is done with intelligence and
sympathy, with a sense of fellowship in the under-

236 THE DISCOURSES chap.
taking, and of participation in the master's scheme
and aim. Such is the association with Himself
which Jesus gives to his servants. " All things,"
He says, "which I heard from my Father, I have
made known unto you." I have admitted you to
my confidence in respect of the charge which I
have from my Father, and made you partners
with Me in the great scheme of God. This is
indeed to treat us as friends; and this gives the
true character to Christian service. An intelli
gent apprehension of the revelation made to us, a
spontaneous participation in the mind of Christ,
a practical adoption of his interests as our own, a
conscious association with Him in life and work, —
these are the privileges and the duties of those to
whom He says, "I have called you friends." A
practical basis is given for this experience in its
connexion with " what the Lord doeth." It is the
work of Christ in the world which engages that
service which becomes friendship; and we shall
find it such, not as mere observers and approvers,
but as active participants according to our several
vocations and ministries.
The privilege of being servants is great ; that of
being friends is greater. Some good men limit
themselves to the first experience, without ad
vancing to the second. Loyal in duties, they do
their part, and they have their reward ; but they
rest in contracted ideas, and live on distant terms

xii LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP 237
with their Master. Content with an elementary
faith, they have little interest in the more ample
communications of truth, of which it is said, " All
things that I have heard of my Father, I have
made known unto you." Scarcely looking be
yond what they are bound to do themselves, they
miss the sense of association with what " the Lord
doeth." The secret of a true friendship is revealed in this
explanation. That does not consist in outward re
lations or circumstances, though these may become
occasions of it. It consists in common ideas and
common interests, in fellowship of mind and fel
lowship of action. And what a power there is in
it ! How often, among ourselves, does the friend
ship of a superior mind exalt the lower character,
enlarge the horizon of thought, and make life
more worthy, more active, more interesting ! In
the highest sense and fullest measure must these
effects attend a friendship with our Lord and
Master. What ideas can be so elevating as those
which He has heard of his Father, and made
known unto us? What interests can be so en
nobling as those which we share with Him in
conscious contribution to his work in the world?
And these ideas and interests are not confined to
the cultured and the few. In every rank there
are friends of Christ, who receive his confidences
and share in his designs.

238 THE DISCOURSES chap.
To this service and fellowship Jesus had called
the disciples. The initiative was his, not theirs ;
so He reminds them. "Ye did not choose me,
but I chose you." Some have read these words,
as intending election to eternal life ; but that is
out of keeping with our Lord's whole habit of
speech,1 and also with the drift of the present
words, in respect to the actual position of service
and fellowship, and again with the use of the
same verb concerning the same persons in other
places.2 The choice was followed by appointment
for work and its results. " I set (or placed) you,
that ye should go and bear fruit, and that your
fruit should abide, that whatsoever ye shall ask
the Father in my name, he may give it you."
That which had been said before is here recalled,
in order to connect it with the special objects for
which the Apostles were set or constituted in their
assigned position. At the same time, the fruitful
ness expressed in the previous allegory receives
1 St. Augustin, both in this passage and elsewhere (lib. i.
ch. 17, de Prcedest. Sanct.), understands by this choosing the
predestination of God: I have predestinated you, and chosen
you, without any merits of your own, to glory. But this does
not agree rightly with the words, " Ye have not chosen me."
For neither could the Apostles choose Christ to heavenly glory ;
nor does Christ here seem to have wished to reveal his pre
destination to the Apostles. For this He Himself is wont to
attribute to the Father. — C. a Lapide.
2 eT\tyop.ai, to choose out for one's self. Luke vi. 13, John
vi. 70, Acts i. 2, all of choosing to apostleship.

xii LOVE AND FRIENDSHIP 239
here a significant addition, suggesting more dis
tinctly the character of apostolic fruitfulness.
" That ye should go " implies their mission as iii
the mind of the Speaker, and "that your fruit
should remain " is a forecast of its enduring effect.
The fulfilment of that forecast is before us still,
in the continuance of the faith which they
preached and of the Church which they founded.
But not to Apostles only does this word belong.
How much fruit remains from godly lives in every
age, in- lasting institutions, enduring books, hymns
that are sung from age to age, in names by which
the world is made better, in propagated influences
of truth or goodness, in ministries, perhaps humble
and obscure, but which issue in the eternal life of
the saved !
It is a noble and a Christian ambition which
aspires to prolong the useful effects of life on
earth beyond its appointed span; and surely this
enduring character belongs more or less to all
good service. It is a word both of exhortation
and assurance for all members, servants, and
friends of Christ. " I have set you, that ye should
go and bear fruit, and that your fruit should
remain."

240 THE DISCOURSES

CHAPTER XIII
ENMITY OF THE WORLD
xv. 17-25
The discourse is now to enter upon another
region of thought; following the future course of
the disciples it must pass into the world. The
dividing line is drawn in the words, —
" These things I enjoin you, to the end that ye may love
one another."
Most , commentators (as Luthardt and Godet)
make the saying the conclusion of the preceding
section. Others (as Westcott) read it as an intro
duction to that which follows. Surely it is both.
It is a dividing line and a connecting link. Such
is the effect of a like phrase in other places.1
Here the expression intends, not a summary of
what has been taught, but one practical conclu
sion from it; namely, the precept of mutual love
as proper to men who are in common relations of
union and friendship with their Lord, such as

1

xiv. 25, xv. 11, xvi. 1, 25, 33.

xiii ENMITY OF THE WORLD 241
have been unfolded in the preceding words. But
the saying is at the same time an introduction
to the instructions which ensue ; for this precept,
delivered but a moment before, is repeated here,
not simply for the sake of impression, but specially
for its bearing on the experiences now to be de
scribed. It bears upon them as contrasted with
them, and as providing against them. The love
to be maintained within the company of Christ is
sharply contrasted with the hatred to be encoun
tered outside it; and the uniting bond among
believers is, shown to be a practical necessity, in
view of the coming conflict with the unbelieving
world. So the Evangelist in his Epistle, enlarging
on the charge which he here records, contrasts and
connects this love and this hatred, in order to
impress on a later generation this lesson of his
Lord. " This is the message which ye heard from
the beginning, that we should love one another.
. . . Marvel not, my brethren, if the world hateth
you. We know that we have passed out of death
into life, because we love the brethren. He that
loveth not, abideth in death" (1 John iii. 11, 13,
14). The urgent language of the then aged
Apostle evinces the pain with which he saw divis
ions and antagonisms rising among Christians
themselves, and threatening to bring, as they have
since brought, the evil spirit of the world into the
heart of the Church. Q

242 THE DISCOURSES chap.
But on the evening of the farewell, these dangers
lay in the distance, though in the reiterated in
junction the foresight of them appears. The need
then was to prepare the minds of the chosen band
for the experiences of the mission and conflict
which were before them. This is done in the rest
of the discourse by combining premonitions of
trial with promises of support. The world rising
against them and the Spirit coming to their help
form the picture of their future work, as followers
and agents of Jesus after He is gone. Following
the mingled flow of these warning and animating
words, we shall observe two stages in the devel
opment of the situation, — the first given in xv.
18-27, the second in xvi. 1-15. Each presents a
view of the antagonism of the world, called forth
by the testimony to Jesus, and of the power of the
Spirit by which the testimony will be sustained;
but the first stage gives the principles of the con
flict, the second enters into its details.
It has been remarked by Luthardt that the dif
ference of subject in Chapter XV. is characterised
by difference of expression. In the first half of the
chapter there is an entire absence of connecting
particles (a feature technically expressed by the
word "asyndeton"); in the second, the particles
of connexion (and, but, etc.) reappear.1 "The
1 In his "Introduction," vol. i. p. 41, Luthardt observes
on the construction and form of sentences. " Asyndeton

xiii ENMITY OF THE WORLD 243
emotion of the heart," says Luthardt, " expresses
itself in asyndeton." So it does; but emotion is
not all the reason for this manner of expression.
The former section announced spiritual truths
which dwell as separate oracles on the memory;
the latter, predicting historical facts, takes the
tone in which one tells what happens in the world.
The difference is worth noting, as a mark of dis
tinction between the two sections of the discourse.
The members of Christ who share his life, the
friends of Christ who share his love, are also
followers of Christ who share his work ; and they
must find, as He has found, what painful experi
ences attend it. Thus the discourse must pass
from the secret sanctuary to the outlying scene,
and from the personal relations with Jesus to the
consequent relations with the world. The atmos
phere is changed in a moment. Within is the
breath of love ; without are the blasts of hatred.
" If the world hateth you — ( it is expressed not as a con
tingency, but as a fact) — If the world hateth you, ye know
that it has hated me before (it hated) you.
" If ye were of the world, the world would love its own ;
but because ye are not of the world, but I chose you out of
the world, therefore the world hateth you.
lays thoughts and sentences utterly bare, side by side, without
special note of their mutual relation. It is partly a sign of the
plain statement of what is to be reported, partly the product of
a deep perception of the mutual relation of the matters in
question. It desires that others obtain the same perception
in its native purity."

244 THE DISCOURSES chap.
" Remember the word that I said unto you. A servant is
not greater than his lord. If they persecuted me, they will
also persecute you ; if they kept my word, they will keep
yours also.
" But all these things will they do unto you for my name's
sake, because they know not him that sent me " (18-21).
The world ! It is a comprehensive and com
plex term, vaguely extending over all regions and
races and ages. It presents mankind as a whole,
but especially as self-developed in congregated
numbers and social communities, and consequently
discovering the predominant spirit, and exhibiting
in high relief the character of human nature as it
is. The world thus fashioned, thus inspired, thus
characterised, is everywhere, but most in its cen
tres and citadels. It is diffused over the hills of
Galilee and concentrated in the schools of Jerusa
lem ; it shouts in a theatre at Ephesus and rules
in the palace of the Caesars ; it is in aristocracies
and democracies, in the classes and the masses, in
secular companies and ecclesiastical corporations,
in marts of business and resorts of pleasure.
Under various conditions of society and in dif
ferent degrees of intensity, the world realises
itself in all races and orders and places and times.
But in the midst of this immense variety, what is
it which constitutes the unity, and, as it were,
personality, in which the world is regarded, and
which a frequent use of its name in Scripture

xiii ENMITY OF THE WORLD 245
represents? It may be answered that the world
is one, in virtue of the mind and spirit which per
vades it ; in virtue of (what in a larger sense we
may call) its worldliness, being a God to itself,
deriving its principles, aims, and instincts from
the things that are in the world. It becomes one
in virtue of the moral condition thus created,
which is at its root alienation from God.
That spirit had now been tested and exposed by
the great embassy of love ; and the test had been
applied under, what might seem, the most hopeful
conditions. The Jewish world, in which Jesus
appeared, was in a higher moral state than were
the nations ; it was prepared by previous revela
tion; it had the form of knowledge and of the
truth in the law; it had godly traditions and
associations, and was familiar with a religious
language, which made the embassy intelligible at
once. All the more on these accounts did that
people show what is the inbred, inveterate char
acter of the spirit of the world by its attitude
towards Him who was sent from God. " He was
in the world, and the world knew him not; he
came unto his own, and his own received him
not." But there was worse than incapacity to
know, and refusal to receive ; these rose in resent
ment, and settled into hatred. It was painfully
felt. " The world," He had said to his brethren,
"cannot hate you, but me it hateth, because I

246 THE DISCOURSES chap.
testify of it that the works thereof are evil"
(vii. 7). The hatred grew more active as the
testimony grew more clear, and it was now reach
ing consummation in the final crime.
Jesus speaks now of this hatred, because his
followers must inherit it; in order not only to
warn them of what they will meet, but also to give
them the support, which will be felt in a knowledge
of the nature of the case and a sense of communion
with Himself.
Why should these men, with their simple char
acters and good intentions, be objects of hatred to
the world? But why should He have been so,
who came with larger love and more ample bene
fits ? If it hates you (the indicative affirms it as
fact), if it hates you, ye know (or rather, know
ye) that it hated me first of you (ejie irpcoTov v/mov
liefiio-riKe'), an expression by which He ranks more
clearly Himself and them together.1 In their case,
as in his, this hatred has its root in an instinctive
sense of inward severance and of a different origin.
" If ye were of the world (born of and belonging
to it), the world would love its own," recognising
its own family likeness, with such love as is natu
ral to it.2 " But because ye are not of the world,"
1 So sometimes in English. E.g. Milton, —
" Adam, tbe god li cut man of men since bo ru ;
The fairest of her daughters, Eve."
2 The love (i<pi\ei) is that of nature, and not of moral choice
(dy d-iraTe) . — Westcoti.

xiii ENMITY OF THE WORLD 247
but on the contrary, I chose you out of the world,
into my own likeness and fellowship, on that
account the world hates you. All commentators
observe how strongly the substantive reality and
antagonistic character of the- world are empha
sised by the word five times repeated in this single
verse. Such is the hidden root of the hatred. Its
manifestations follow naturally; and here also the
saying on the relation of master and servant will
apply. "Remember the word, the word that I
said unto you. A servant is not greater than his
lord." It is indeed a word to be remembered by
servants of Jesus Christ ; for it turns many ways
and teaches many lessons. Lately (xiii. 16) it
taught the duty of a like humility of service;
now it impresses the fitness of a like treatment
and endurance. Shall the servants claim to be
exempted from that which the Master bare? In
so far as they do the same work and speak the
same word, they must reckon on the same response.
"If they persecuted me" (He says), "they will
also persecute you ; if they kept my word, they
will keep yours also." The world is no longer
spoken of in its unity. The plural admits variety
of action ; and perhaps the second clause may sug
gest a greater opening for the effect of the word
as compared with the treatment of the speaker.
But the disciples are to judge from past observa-

248 THE DISCOURSES chap.
tion what they have to look for, both in treatment
of themselves and in reception of their word.
Only they have received, in the relation between
their Lord's history and their own, a strong sup
port and consolation. The worst that may come
to them will be the consequence and the evidence
of their communion with Him in spirit and in
work, and will bear the blessed impress of his
name. What power lay in the word, " All these
things will they do unto you for my name's
sake " ! That thought was more than support and
consolation ; it became exultation and joy. Very
soon will these men encounter the rising persecu
tion, in imprisonment, scourgings, and counsels to
slay them; and they wilh "return from the pres
ence of the Council rejoicing that they are counted
worthy to suffer shame for the name " (virep tov
6vdfiaT0<i, Acts v. 41).
It will be for his name ; but what does that
imply? Jesus will not leave the question unan
swered ; He will go below the surface, and show
the truth of the situation, as it is sadly present to
his mind. He continues : —
" For my name's sake, because they know not him that
sent me.
" If I had not come and spoken unto them, they had not
had sin ; but now they have no excuse for their sin.
" He that hateth me, hateth my Father also.
" If I had not done among them the works which none

xiii ENMITY OF THE WORLD 249
other did, they had not had sin ; but now have they both
seen and hated both me and my Father.
" But (this cometh to pass), that the word may be fulfilled
which is written in their law, They hated me without a
cause " (21-25).
"They know not him that sent me," — that is
at the root of all. Having no real acquaintance
with the Sender, they could not recognise Him
that was sent. Rejection of the Son was the con
sequence of alienation from the Father ; and this
has been made clear by the searching character of
the mission, and by its appeal in word and deed.
Bishop Westcott brings out the parallel of the two
appeals by simple arrangement of the clauses.
" If I had not come and spoken to them, they had not had
sin,
But now they have no excuse for their sin :
He that hateth me, hateth my Father also.
" If I had not done among them the works which none other
did, they had not had sin :
But now they have both seen, and hated both me and
my Father."
To have sent the Word would have been a great
favour; but to come and spealc was more. The
personal presence fulfilled the part of " Him that
should come " ; the speaking in common language
and natural tones brought the message home. It
was spoken heart to heart and face to face. And
if visible evidence was needed, visible evidence

250 THE DISCOURSES chap.
was given by works, such works as none other did.
In kind, in number, in power, in deep significance,
they stand, and will ever stand, absolutely alone, —
one entire testimony of the Father to the Son.
But for these appeals and evidences, " they had
not had sin," — sin, that is, in this matter, sin in
unbelief. The absence of evidence would have
been real excuse. Is there not a sound of divine
equity in the saying, and of mercy which will
make allowance where allowance can be made?
But now, as things are, they have no pretext to
cover the guilt of unbelief. It is not ignorance, or
misinformation, or mistake. It is sin. It springs
from aversion, and ripens into hatred : and hatred
of whom ? " He that hateth me hateth my Father
also " ; for the mind and spirit in Me, which repels
them, is the mind and spirit of my Father; and
the claims which they resent from Me are the
claims which I make for my Father. All has
been .clearly set before them, with the result that
" they have both seen and hated both Me and my
Father." A sad result, indeed, of the great experiment.
Yet one that might be expected ; for it also is
fulfilment: fulfilment of anticipations which past
examples might create; fulfilment of reflections
stamped on the sacred page, upon the conduct of
men noted in history or foreseen in prophecy;
fulfilment especially of sad voices breathing in the

xiii ENMITY OF THE WORLD 251
Psalms, and making their own Scriptures — " their
law, which they use and boast " (Bengel) — a
testimony against themselves. Yes, it is written
more than once, and is now fulfilled more dis
tinctly than ever before, " They hated me without
a cause " (Soipedv), gratuitously, with no cause
given by Him Who is hated, but all the reason in
the heart of the haters. Whether the words are
an echo of Ps. xxxv. 19, or (more probably) of
Ps. lxix. 4, they are not to be taken alone. Here,
as in many of our Lord's citations, a single line
intimates the presence to his mind of the whole
Scripture in which it occurs; and these Psalms
serve beyond others to describe the situation
created for Him by human enmity, and to supply
fit expressions for the facts and feelings of the
moment. It is one of the many evidences that
the Scriptures are living in his heart, as receiving
in his own history their highest and intended
fulfilment.

252 THE DISCOURSES

CHAPTER XIV
WITNESS TO THE WORLD
xv. 26, 27
Thus have the disciples been warned and in
formed in respect of their relations with the world.
The true state of the case up to the present
moment is before them, — a sad summary of their
Master's history, and a dark forecast of their own
prospect. But light rises on the darkness. After all, the
last word ha&not been spoken, nor are the resources
of God exhausted. There is a power, still in
reserve, destined to bring new witness to Jesus
and the truth. The Paraclete, already promised
as Comforter to the disciples, shall prove his char
acter of Advocate in the great cause which is yet
to be pleaded before the world.
" But when the Comforter is come, whom I will send unto '
you from the Father, even the Spirit of truth, which pro
ceedeth from the Father, he shall bear witness of me :
" And ye also bear witness, because from the beginning
ye are with me" (26, 27).

xiv WITNESS TO THE WORLD 253
Very fully and precisely does the Lord designate
the agent who is destined to come upon the scene.
He is the Paraclete, now to develop a distinct
element in the large significance of that name. I
will send Him to you from the Father. He is the
Spirit of truth which proceedeth from the Father.
He (IkcIv o?, personal and emphatic), He shall bear
witness concerning Me.
There is large revelation and guidance for
thought in these words, each particular having
force in the direction of theological statement, but
here bearing intentionally on the historical mission
of the Spirit. This definite mission is expressed
by the future, " I will send," the action of the
Sender being emphasised by the use of the pro
noun (_<y_. irefi-tyoo) ; while in the later clause the
present tense, " who proceedeth," marks this send
ing as a special stage in a going forth that is con
tinuous and of old. The use also of the preposition
irapd in both clauses makes the passage a state
ment on the active mission, not an abstract doc
trine on the eternal procession, of the Holy Ghost.
The twofold phrase, "the Spirit of truth which
proceedeth from the Father," raises the truth in
tended above all partial or secondary senses to the
highest conceivable ideal.
The object of this mission is briefly expressed,
to be enlarged afterwards, in its proper place,
" He shall bear witness concerning me." Christ

254 THE DISCOURSES chap.
is the power for life and healing in the world;
but for this He must be known. He has not
been known in his personal manifestation ; He is
to be known by testimony, — a method which
has the advantage of extending to all mankind
through all ages. The first witness being given
once for all, is propagated to the end of time.
From the beginning to the end it is a witness
concerning Christ.
The witness is twofold — that of the Paraclete,
and that of the Apostles — but the two form one
testimony. There is a reason for each: for that
of the Paraclete, because He is "the Spirit of
truth which proceedeth from the Father " ; for that
of the Apostles, "because ye are with me from
the beginning," — the beginning, that is, of the
manifestation and ministry. They are witnesses
of facts, of words and deeds, of impressions which
they have received in personal observation and
habitual intercourse. This nearness to the person
of Jesus, and companionship through all his time,
is recognised as a qualification for his commissioned
witnesses, as St. Peter states at the appointment
of Matthias, " Of these men which have companied
with us all the time that the Lord Jesus went in
and out among us, beginning from the baptism of
John unto the day that he was received up from
us, must one become a witness with us of his resur
rection " (Acts i. 21, 22). And this qualification

xrv WITNESS TO THE WORLD 255
is constantly insisted on in their teaching. " We
cannot but speak the things which we have seen
and heard," — " We are witnesses of all things
which he did " ; and so they speak continually.
On this testimony the Church is founded, holding
the historic facts, as St. Luke says, " even as they
delivered them unto us, which from the beginning
were eye-witnesses and ministers of the word"
(i. 2).
St. John in his old age, solemnly concluding the
apostolic testimony, uses words which involve the
twofold witness of the senses and of the Spirit.
" That which was from the beginning, which we have
heard, which we have seen with our eyes, that which we
beheld, and our hands have handled, concerning the Word
of life (and the life was manifested, and we have seen, and
bear witness, and declare unto you the life, the eternal life,
which was with the Father, and was manifested unto us) ;
that which we have seen and heard declare we unto you also,
that ye may have fellowship with us " (1 John i. 1-3).
The witness of the senses and natural impres
sions is supplied by that which is seen and heard
and looked upon and handled. The witness of the
Spirit gives assurance that all this is "concerning
the Word of life," and is a manifestation of the
life, " the eternal life which was with the Father."
" It is the Spirit which beareth witness because the
Spirit is truth." The historic facts of word and
deed, of passion, resurrection, ascension, are mys-

256 THE DISCOURSES chap.
teries as well as facts, revelations of the unseen.
Their true character and effect may be — from the
nature of the case they must be — felt by instinct
ive apprehension, and deduced by necessary infer
ence ; but more than this was needed for the clear
view and certain testimony of these transcendental
truths. The heavenly things needed a heavenly
witness to interpret and certify them. The disci
ples would feel the need. The more exalted were
their own apprehensions of all that had passed
before them the more would they feel that these
thoughts were too great for them, passing into
" the deep things of God," and calling for a higher
teaching than that of a human understanding and
reason. At the time that Jesus is speaking, they
scarcely know what their mission will involve, in
the fulness and grandeur of the witness to be
given ; but they will know it soon, and at the
same time will feel the presence of another mind
than their own, which, in them, and with them,
will testify of Christ. When this witness came
it consisted in a distinct conscious experience, in
the recognised unity of a common inspiration,
in concurrent influence on other souls, in sudden
communications of light and power, and in mani
fold preternatural gifts, all converging in support
of the one Gospel, and the testimony to Jesus as
the Christ, the Son of God, and to the life that is
through his name. In the strength of this twofold

xiv WITNESS TO THE WORLD 257
witness the Apostles stood forth before the world :
" We are witnesses of these things, and so is also
the Holy Ghost which God has given to them that
obey him" (Acts v. 32).

258 THE DISCOURSES

CHAPTER XV
TREATMENT BY THE WORLD
xvi. 1-7
If the Speaker had been only giving information,
or treating of a subject, He would have continued
the account of the witness of the Spirit to the
world by telling what He was about to tell of its
character and effects. If we omit the first seven
verses of this chapter, then the prediction proceeds
in order : " He shall bear witness of me, and ye
also shall bear witness ; and when he is come he
shall reprove the world," etc. But these are words
of love; and the emotions and anxieties of love
break in on the course of consecutive thought.
The situation created by "ye also shall bear wit
ness " is before the mind of Jesus ; that in which
He will leave these men who are to be with Him
no more, but to witness for Him to the world.
Why has He spoken thus concerning the world and
its hatred ? There was need for such words then ;
there would be greater need soon.
" These things have I spoken unto you, that ye should not
be offended. They shall put you out of the synagogues:

xv TREATMENT BY THE WORLD 259
yea, the hour cometh, that whosoever killeth you shall think
that he offereth service to God. And these things will they
do, because they have not known the Father, nor me. But
these things have I spoken unto you, that when their hour
is come, ye may remember them, how that I told you. And
these things I said not unto you from the beginning, because
I was with you. But now I go unto him that sent me ; and
none of you asketh me, Whither goestthou? But because
I have spoken these things unto you, sorrow hath filled your
heart. Nevertheless I tell you the truth ; It is expedient
for you that I go away: for if I go not away, the Com
forter will not come unto you ; but if I go, I will send him
unto you" (1-7).
These are words of considerate forethought, and
of sympathy with trials that are coming and with
sorrow that is come ; but are spoken on account
of danger, and rather for safety than for comfort,
as it is said, "that ye should not be offended."1
The word denotes, not the displeasure or pain of
1 The words (a KdvSdKov, crKavSaMfa, ofience and offend) be
long to the region of Christian thought (Vox solum biblica et
ecclesiasticae. — Grimm). The idea is that of an obstacle in
the path, against which the foot strikes, with the shock to the
frame and f eelings which all know, and with the effect of causing
the man to stumble or fall, or perhaps to cease following, and
turn out of the way. This is what the English "offend " properly
means. Our common use of the word has rather limited its
impression to the shock of personal displeasure ; and the Revised
Version, to avoid that impression, has generally dropped the
word, and substituted " cause to stumble," often with so clumsy
an effect as to make it one of the blots of the version. It is
better to keep "offend" as a biblical word used in its proper
sense.

260 THE DISCOURSES chap.
these experiences, but the shock which they would
give to faith by contrariety to what seemed just
expectations, and to old religious associations.
Instead of a manifestation to the world which the
disciples thought to behold, there was to be only
a testimony which they themselves must give;
instead of a restoring the kingdom to Israel, the
scorn and hatred of Israel itself, with the strange
distress of persecution by religious authorities, with
consent of religious people, acting from religious
motives. These things were of a kind to perplex
the mind, stagger faith, and imperil their witness
for their Master, or even their adherence to Him.
The main points of these experiences are touched
in few words, and with explanations which ought
to satisfy. They shall put you out of the syna
gogues (diro(Tvvayd>yov<; iroiijcrovo'iv i>fia<i), an ex
communication from fellowship with their people,
not only bringing painful consequences, but in
itself most distressing to religious minds. Yea,
more than that, — every one who kills you will
think that (Xarpeiav irpoacbepei) he offers an act
of devotion to God. Strange condition of mind !
Yet one well within the capacities of misinformed
conscience and the curious resources of self-deceit.
Not only on the part of Jews, but within the
Church itself, sad illustrations have abounded of
this kind of " service to God," often in extremest
forms, commonly in minor persecutions. To those

xv TREATMENT BY THE WORLD 261
who had to suffer from this perverted zeal it
would be a support to know that it proceeded
from ignorance. They will do these things be
cause they have not known (ovk eyvmo-av), did not
recognise what was before them in the revelation
of the Father and the Son. As it was with Jews
who persecuted Christians, so with Christians who
have persecuted Jews, and with Christians who have
persecuted Christians. Things have been done
"to the glory of God" and "in the name of
Christ," of which He who looks down from heaven
could only say, " They have not known the Father
nor me."
However (so we may understand the words),
enough has been said for the purpose, which is in
the future rather than the present. When the
hour is come, you will remember these warnings,
and that it was I (eyw) who told you ; and all
that happens will recall this evening and my fore
seeing love.
But these warnings were not new; hence the
next words present no little difficulty both to
readers and expositors : " These things I said not
unto you from the beginning, because I was with
you." Passing intimations of trial are not incon
sistent with this statement, as not being distinct ;
neither would the prediction in Matt, xxiii. 9 be so,
clear as is its announcement of tribulation, hatred,
and death ; for those words are themselves part of

262 THE DISCOURSES chap.
the filial prophecy, and spoken but two days be
fore these. But it is otherwise with the words in
Matt. x. 16-25, for they are both early and distinct.
Some commentators have satisfied themselves by
saying that the former teaching on persecution
was comparatively dim ; but it is not so with this
passage, which stands in the first Gospel at the
beginning of the apostolic commission. Critics
who arrange things as they please consider this to
be an instance of the habit of that Gospel to con
solidate scattered teachings, in this case recording as
at first what was really spoken at last. This is a
violent supposition; and, moreover, the passage
has its appropriate fitness in the place assigned it.
The Twelve are chosen, and receive a charge,
and are sent forth on a short experimental mission
prelusive to their future work. The Lord foresees
what that future work will be, and his words (as is
common with Him), beginning with that which
is at hand, pass on to that which follows. He
sees them delivered up to councils, and scourged
in synagogues, and brought before governors and
kings for his sake, and for a testimony to Jews
and Gentiles ; and here only, in all the previous
teaching occurs the promise of the Spirit as sus
taining their words and speaking in them. Thus
He did say these things " at the beginning," when
the Twelve first became Apostles, as indeed was
proper to the occasion. But the Authorised Ver-

xv TREATMENT BY THE WORLD 263
sion augments the difficulty by giving a defective
translation. The word (If a/3%»?.) is not at, but, as
in the Revised Version, from the beginning, and
is distinct even from the usual form so rendered
(dir dp-xfis). It is used only in one other place
(vi. 64), where also it refers to the beginning of
apostleship, and means literally out of, or forth
from, the beginning, expressing, in conjunction
with the tense wliich follows (elirov), consequence
and continuity. Thus we hear the Lord as saying
that after the first He has not been used to tell
them of these things because He was with them,
and these experiences lay then in the future, and
there were other subjects for his intercourse with
them from which these darker thoughts might
divert their minds. The children of the wedding
do not fast while the Bridegroom is with them.
It is otherwise when He must be taken away from
them ; and that time is now.
"Now," He resumes, "I go unto him that
sent me." So recurs the ever-present thought
which ought to awaken enquiry leading into faith
and hope. To this the disciples could not rise.
"None of you asketh me, Whither goest thou?"
Some time before Peter had asked, and Thomas
had implied it ; but these had been voices of deso
late perplexity, and there was no real spirit of
enquiry, because sorrow had filled their hearts.
So sorrow works when it fills the heart, keeping

264 THE DISCOURSES

out everything but itself, like a heavy cloud over
the mind, excluding lights that should be breaking
in, and sometimes in the darkness shewing as
simply evil things which are really good. Jesus
knew their sorrow as that of nature and affection ;
and He felt for it in all tenderness, as still He
does in other cases where sorrow fills the heart.
" Nevertheless," He says, " I tell you the truth.
It is expedient for you that I go away." Strange
as it sounds to you, it is the truth, and it is I who
tell it to you (the arrangement and the use of the
personal pronoun are emphatic). It is for your
interest and advantage that I go away. There is
loss and gain; but the loss itself is gain, as Au
gustin frequently insists, and as all more spiritual
thinkers expound. It has been often shewn how
the withdrawal of the visible presence of Jesus
was for the disciples salutary progress and advance.
In these arguments two leading ideas may be dis
tinguished. It was the end of tutelage which
would have kept them children, and the removal
of a veil which would have kept them carnal.
The first reason is incidental to the natural con
stitution of man; the second is inherent in the
supernatural scheme of things.
It belongs to human nature in childhood, or in
stages analogous to childhood, to be formed by
external supervision, and in maturity to be set
free from it ; and there is a time when prolonged

xv TREATMENT BY THE WORLD 265
supervision would not promote, but arrest, ma
turity. The greater independence of judgment
and action has its risks ; but the virtue of the
child who is kept right is of a less perfect charac
ter than that of the man who keeps right himself.
The time had come when it was better for these
disciples to pass out of the first stage of discipline
into one which would test the principles and
powers they had gained, and to exchange the eye
ever upon them, the word ever in their ears, the
visible presence which had made their life and
safety, for a state in which service, loyalty, and
love would be strengthened by more independent
exercise, and an obedience of sight would become
obedience of faith. It was good for them to be
with Jesus ; it was better to prove that they had
been with Him. Even in this sense it was expe
dient for them that He should go away.
But this was the more superficial gain. Still
more necessary, in the order of grace, was the
removal of the veil which would have kept them
carnal. The presence of Christ in the flesh, so
great a help to the life which they had lived,
would be a hindrance to the life which they were
to live; for it must have kept their minds in
relation to Him in the region of the visible, the
corporeal, the external. While He sat there be
fore them in the body, it was hard to enter into
the mystery of a spiritual union, or duly to appre-

266 THE DISCOURSES chap.
hend the divine in the human.1 Man is by nature
slow to pass beyond sight and sense and the affec
tions which these can generate. Indeed, there
has been too much evidence in historical Chris
tianity of the disposition to "know Christ after
the flesh," and to fashion his religion to a corre
sponding character.2 His warning on that subject

1 Augustin is frequent on this point. In his Sermon on the
passage CXLIII., " Merito dictum est, Expedit vobis ut ego
Vadam. Semper quidem divinitate vobiscum est ; sed, nisi cor-
poraliter abiret a nobis, semper ejus corpus carnaliter-videremus,
et nunquam spiritualiter crederemus." Again in CCLXX.,
"Videtur mihi quod discipuli circa formam humanam Domini
Christi fuerunt occupati, et tanquam homines in homine hu-
mano tenebantur affectu. Volebat autem eos affectum habere
divinnm, et de carnalibus facere spirituales. . . . Carnales vero
esse desistetis, si forma carnis a vestris oculis auferatur, ut
forma Dei vestris cordibus inseratur."
2 "True it is that, while it is the glory of the Church of Rome
to have preserved the Confession of Christ, the Son of the living
God, through so many ages, notwithstanding the open assaults
and insidious snares of numberless forms of heresy, that Church
has ever been especially apt to lose sight of the spiritual and
divine truth in the outward human form. She has been unable
to recognise how it was expedient that Christ should go away.
She has never been content, unless she could get something
present, — a vicar, images, outward works, actual sacrifices with
priests to offer them, real flesh and real blood. She chose,
rather, to defy the evidence of the senses than not to have an
object of sense. Yes, assuredly it is a great sin of the Church
of Rome, that, in the words of Augustin, ' amabat Dominum
Jesum Christum, sicut homo hominem, sicut carnalis carnalem,
non sicut spiritualis majestatem.' This, however, has been
a great difficulty in all ages and under all forms of the
Church." — Hake's Mission ofthe Comforter, Note C.

xv TREATMENT BY THE WORLD 267
was connected with the lesson of his departure.
" What, then, if ye should behold the Son of Man
ascending up where he was before? It is the
spirit that quickeneth; the flesh profiteth nothing.;
the words that I have spoken to you are spirit and
are life " (vi. 62, 63). For this reason, and in
the same sense, He may well say, " It is expedient
for you that I go away."
But the removal of hindrances is here not the
cause of the advantage asserted, but only the con
dition of it. The cause of advantage is not in
greater maturity or spirituality of mind, but in the
coming of the Paraclete. " If I go not away, the
Comforter will not come unto you, but if I go I
will send him unto you." There is precision in
the language which the English can barely indi
cate. Two words for " go " are used, — the one
(direXdaf) denotes departure from the place left
— in this case, from earth and men; the other
(¦n-opevdoY), passage to the place and the end
sought — in this case, to heaven and God. The
first is an inevitable incident; the second is the
effectual act. Before this Jesus had said He
would send the Spirit if He went to the Father ;
here He says He cannot send Him till He does.
It is an impossibility noted elsewhere (vii. 39).
" The Spirit was not yet, because Jesus was not
yet glorified." One stage of the dispensation
must be finished before the next ensues ; and

268 THE DISCOURSES chap.
rights of gift must be purchased before they are
used. There must be departure from one scene
of action to another ; and the departing steps must
be death, resurrection, ascension. Then, when
men are redeemed and the Son of Man is glorified,
the conditions will be fulfilled, and the Spirit will
be his to give, and theirs to receive. These quali
fying conditions are not now to be expressed.
When they have occurred they will be understood
under the Spirit's teaching. Now it is enough,
" If I go, I will send him unto you."

CONVICTION OF THE WORLD 269

CHAPTER XVI
CONVICTION OF THE WORLD
xvi. 8-11
The discourse returns to the point which it had
reached before (xv. 26, 27), and resumes the sub
ject of the witness to the world. It was to be a
twofold witness, by the Paraclete and by the dis
ciples ; and the mention of their part in it had
diverted the course of thought to the trials which
it would involve for them. Love had delayed for
a moment in order to recognise and provide for
these experiences. Now the Lord continues the
prediction of the mission of the Paraclete, still
associated with that of the disciples, as shewn by
the last words, " I will send him (irpb^ _•/_.£?) to
you." There is no mission to the world but
through them. So the account of this mission
divides itself into two parts, — one of conviction
to the world (" When he is come he shall convict
the world ") ; one of teaching to the disciples
(" When he is come he shall guide you into all
the truth ").
The first account is given in a few words, which

270 THE DISCOURSES chap.
yet describe the nature of the witness, discriminate
its subjects, and intimate its effect.
" He, when he is come, will convict the world in respect
of sin, and of righteousness and of judgment ; of sin, because
they believe not on me; of righteousness, because I go to
the Father, and ye behold me no more ; of judgment, because
the prince of this world is judged " (8-11).
Here are large subjects and pregnant principles
of thought described in brief expression. That
makes exposition difficult, — a difficulty (so I have
found) rather augmented than relieved by study
of numerous commentaries and disquisitions.
[It may be of preliminary use to notice the inadequacy
of our language to supply a precise rendering of the original.
We have no exact equivalent for (eXe'yfei), the word ren
dered in Authorised Version ' reprove,' and in Revised Version
'convict.' The English Hexapla shews these other renderings,
' He shall reprove the worlde of synne, righteousnesse, and
doom ' (Wycliffe) ; ' He will rebuke the worlde of synne,' etc.
(Tyndal and Cranmer) ; ' He shall argue the world of sin,'
etc. (Rheims). The Revised Version translates the word,
which is frequent in New Testament, differently in different
passages: in one (Matt, xviii. 15), 'shew him his fault'; in
many, ' reprove ' ; in more, ' convict.' ' Reprove ' would
answer well enough, if taken in its old sense of confuting
and proving the contrary,1 for the Greek word expresses an
1 Reprove : from Fr. reprouver, Lat. reprobare, to prove the
contrary of a statement, refute, disprove.
What doth your arguing reprove. — Job vi. 25.
I£ it shall require to teach any truth, or reprove false doctrine,
or rebuke any vice. — Homilies, p. 8, 1. 24.
Reprove my allegation if you can,
Or else conclude my words effectual.
— Shakespeare, Henry VI., III. 1. 40.
Aldis Wright, Bible Word Book, p. 506.

xvi CONVICTION OF THE WORLD 271
argument to show that a way of thinking is wrong in order
to set it right; but as 'reprove' now conveys a different
impression, the word ' convict ' may serve best.
" But it will require explanatory construction ; for though
to 'convict a man of sin' is an English idiom, to 'convict
him of righteousness ' is not. So we must preserve the force
of the preposition (irepi), ' about, concerning, in respect of.'
The statement will then be clear that the Spirit will convict
the world of false ideas and grave mistakes concerning sin,
righteousness, and judgment.
" To these verbal explanations may be added another on
the word 'because,' which in English has various intentions.
The conjunction (on) here (as often) expresses a fact,
alleged as a reason for something else (e.g. John ii. 18, ' What
sign shewest thou, seeing that thou doest these things ? '
ix. 17, ' What sayest thou of him, in that he opened thine
eyes?'). Thus the facts are given as reasons by which the
world ought to be convinced 'about sin, seeing that they
believe not on me, about righteousness, seeing that I go to
the Father, and about judgment, seeing that the prince of
this world is judged.' The facts, as exhibited by the Spirit,
will be sound reasons for these convictions.]
It is (we observe) to the world that this argu
ment is to be addressed, — the world which has
been described as not knowing God or Christ, as
prone to hate and ready to persecute. But it is
not to be let alone because of this hostile attitude,
or abandoned to this evil condition. Divine love
does not retire at the first rude repulse. On the
contrary, it will return to the chai'ge with fuller
testimonies, more urgent appeals, and on a wider
field, in the power of the Holy Ghost. By Him

272 THE DISCOURSES chap.
the clear light of revelation shall be thrown on all
that is past, and the true state of the case between
God and the world shall be definitively stated.
The subjects of this controversy are the three
great topics which form the domain of conscience,
and involve the present and eternal interests of
mankind, — Sin, Righteousness, Judgment. The
words at first stand alone, and are not to be read
as absorbed into the clauses which follow. They
are correlative terms, representing the ideas of %
grand trilogy and the facts of an awful drama.
These are the subjects of the old controversy which
dates from the fall of man, which the prophets
carried on, and which they invoked creation to
attend, " Hear, O ye mountains, the Lord's contro
versy, and ye strong foundations of the earth."
But now a change has come over it. In the mani
festation of the Son of God, the controversy has
reached its climax and been brought to the point
of decision, and must henceforth be conducted
under altered conditions and with other argu
ments than before. Not only is the natural ten
dency and prevailing sentiment of the world all
wrong on these great subjects, but by a new test
this has been more than ever proved to be the case.
Therefore the Spirit of the Lord, coming with
fresh power on the scene, must lift up a standard
against it.
The standard is the testimony of Jesus, the

CONVICTION OF THE WORLD 273

witness to be borne concerning Him ; for that goes
straight to the centre of these questions, as being
the questions that He came to solve. In Him the
crucial test has been applied to unbelief, the root of
sin. In Him righteousness has been first realised
in man, and then enthroned with God. In Him
the power of evil has been overthrown in conflict
and left under sentence of judgment. At the time
of speaking, none of these things were understood ;
and the decisive error of the world was concen
trated in its error on the person of Christ. It had
not believed in Him, and felt neither the guilt of
the unbelief nor the state of sin which it discov
ered. It had not recognised the one perfect ex
ample of righteousness; on the contrary, it had
counted his righteous claims to be crimes, and
reckoned Him among the transgressors. It saw
judgment executed, not by Him, but against Him,
and was at that moment delivering Him to death.
The Spirit is to shew the truth of the case in all
these respects ; and the words which describe his
witness are adapted- to the situation in each par
ticular, and correspond to thoughts immediately
present at the time. That of the unbelief of the
nation weighs heavily on the mind, as expressed
in the sad conclusion (xii. 37-50) and accentuated
in words just spoken (xv. 22-25). That of depar
ture to God and withdrawal from human eyes is
the ground-thought of this whole discourse. That

274 THE DISCOURSES chap.
of the judgment of Satan has come strongly into
view, as shewn by the last words in the Temple,
" Now is the judgment of this world ; now shall
the prince of this world be cast out" (xii. 31).
These three facts in earth, in heaven, in hell, the
Spirit will use, in order to convict the world by
the revelation which they make on sin, righteous
ness, and judgment.
How this was done in the first stage of his ac
tion we read in the earlier part of the Book of
Acts, in which the sin of that unbelieving genera
tion is arraigned, the righteousness of "that just
One " who is exalted to the right hand of God is
proclaimed, and the certainty of coming judgment
is pressed home on men's souls, all testified with
inspired voice by the Apostles, and felt with thrill
ing effect among the people.
In that first stage the account here given of the
mission of the Paraclete is historically interpreted
by a decisive fulfilment, which is as yet limited
and local. But the interpretation is expanded
when the mission enters on the larger world, and
in contact with mankind in general, develops its
deeper spiritual intention. The controversy of
the Spirit with the world is permanent and uni
versal ; still it turns on sin, righteousness, and
judgment, and still it is carried on, not by abstract
arguments about them, but by the witness to Jesus
Christ and to the great facts of his history. This

xvi CONVICTION OF THE WORLD 275
is the Gospel which the Holy Ghost gave and
which He ever uses for his work of conviction by
the mouth of the preacher and in the heart of
the hearer.
This is the power which awakens in men's
minds, as nothing else has done, the sense of sin.
The sense of sin results from nearness to God, and
the Gospel brings God very near to us by a full
manifestation and a direct appeal made in the
person of his Son, and made to us as sinners. His
name is called Jesus, for He saves his people from
their sins. Reprobation of sin, bearing of sin,
redemption from sin, forgiveness of sin, deliver
ance from sin, are the first ideas represented by
that name. He to whom this appeal of grace is
made, and by whom it is disbelieved and refused,
remains under sin. " He that believeth not is
judged already because he hath not believed on the
name of the only-begotten Son of God" (iii. 18).
That unbelief is a proof of the sinful state and a
final sin itself; for sin, being followed to its last
defences by the Spirit's revelation of the Healer
and Redeemer, is left without excuses, so far as
that revelation is rejected. And thus " He shall,"
the Lord says, " convict the world in respect of
sin, in that they " (not " it," but " they," not the
world collectively, but men personally) " believe
not on me."
This, again, is the power which, as a necessarily

276 THE DISCOURSES

correlative act, gives to the world a new sense of
righteousness. While the world knew not where
to look for righteousness, as realised in man and
sealed of God, its dubious and confused ideas
respecting it had some excuse, though its false
and perverted ideas had none. Things were
changed when the Spirit presented to the world
the great Object of faith, in One who had "ful
filled all righteousness," realising it perfectly in
human life, and then receiving the seal of it, in
that He went to the Father. That fact was con
clusive of the truth of his mission, of the justice of
his claims, and of recognition in heaven as " Jesus
Christ the righteous." Having been " manifested
in the flesh," He was " justified in the spirit, and
received up in glory." This is briefly contained
in the words " Because I go to the Father."
But what is the significance of the added words,
" And ye behold me no longer " ? Many commen
tators treat it as a mere amplification of the depar
ture, but as such it would hardly have a place in
these brief utterances. Some observe, "the fact
that He gives his invisibility this personal turn
and reference to the disciples is an expression of
his sympathetic love." 1 But that personal inten
tion would have required the pronoun (_y_et9), and
it would be scarcely in place in an account of con
viction to the world. Rather it appears to imply
1 Luthardt.

xvi CONVICTION OF THE WORLD 277
that the cessation of visibility on earth and the
close of human observation is the condition of a
true recognition. In some degree that is true in
general. Character, especially righteous charac
ter, is best recognised when life is completed and
observation terminated. Therefore it is when ye
no longer behold me (OecopeiTe) as spectators of
what is passing, you will have the whole history
before you as completed in its last stage and
ended by death and departure, and you will then
receive its full impression. So it has been. It
was seen that both in action and in suffering the
work had been done and the victory won, not by
power, but by righteousness. The world had
before it a perfect example and a new ideal.
Jesus had stamped his image on the inmost con
sciousness of man and at the centre of human
history. In that character it stands without a
rival, in the opinion even of those who refuse to
believe on his name. Those who do believe see
that " God has made the Holy and the Just both
Lord and Christ," the " King of righteousness "
and the author of it, the type of righteousness by
what He was in the flesh, the source of it by what
He is in the Spirit.
Mow He is the source of it to us is a further
question. A distinct doctrine concerning his
communication of this righteousness and our jus
tification in it, has been drawn from this passage

278 THE DISCOURSES

by Augustin and Luther, and by many others.
But it is rather attached to the words than de
duced from them.1 In fact, it belongs to a later
stage of the divine teaching, and is part of the
instruction to the Church rather than of the wit
ness to the world.
Once more, it was the same revelation by the
Spirit which established before the world the truth
of judgment. Were there no judgment, there
would be neither sin nor righteousness ; for it
would be no moral world which had no moral
government, and law would be futile if it were
not to be vindicated, and conscience would be
silenced if it had no support. Hence those who
looked on the course of this world were often
shaken in mind by the disordered scene, which
gave too much occasion for the doubting and
sometimes taunting question, " Where is the God
of judgment?" (Mai. ii. 17). We know the
anxious debates and the agitated appeals on this
subject, which are heard from Prophets, from
Psalmists, and in the Book of Job. And the
apparently wavering conflict between right and
wrong was in reality even more serious than it
seemed; for what took place on the surface had
springs and supplies unseen, and there was a
prince of this world behind the world itself.
1 The justness of these inferences is maintained by Stier
with some pains, but, I think, without success.

xvi CONVICTION OF THE WORLD 279
Great was the need for One who should "bring
forth judgment unto victory." " For this purpose
the Son of God was manifested, that he might
destroy the works of the Devil " (1 John iii. 8).
He came to decide the conflict, and on the cross
it was decided. In that desperate attack on the
righteous One in whom he "had nothing," the
enemy suffered irremediable defeat, and fell under
irrevocable judgment. As yet it is not the world
which is judged, but its Prince. Christ Came
" not to judge the world, but to save the world."
For the purposes of that salvation, the Spirit
witnesses that the issue is decided by what has
taken place ; that in one and the same act sin is
atoned for, righteousness victorious, and the Prince
of this world cast out ; and that the consequence
follows in the certainty of judgment to come.
" God hath appointed a day in which he will judge
the world in righteousness by him whom he hath
ordained" (Acts xvii. 31). This was one of the
voices by which the Apostles awoke the world,
for ever a mighty power for missionary success,
perhaps in these days scarcely as much used as it
ought to be, and as it was by them. But for all
men the testimonies concerning sin and righteous
ness derived, and still derive, force, from the testi
mony of a fixed and final judgment, making it
felt that " the kingdom of God is not in word, but
in power."

280 THE DISCOURSES chap.
These, then, are the subjects of the controversy
with the world, and the lines on which it is now
to be conducted; but what is to be its success?
The word employed does not promise success.
The result of the conviction may be persuasion in
some cases, or hardening in others. Yet the better
result is suggested, if not announced; and it
cannot be thought that so great an Advocate in so
great a cause will testify, argue, and plead in vain.
In respect of a controversy with the world, we
may distinguish the general and superficial effect
in the multitude and mass of men from the deep
and true effect in individual souls. The general
is indeed the consequence of the individual effect ;
for personal conviction diffuses itself in proportion
to its intensity, as a current in a narrow channel,
increasing in force and volume, rises over its
boundaries and occupies with wider and shallower
waters the surrounding scene. And besides this
power of influence, the witness of the Spirit has
its own natural effect, inasmuch as in one part it
consists of evidences and inferences level to the
common reason, and in another part it appeals to
the deepest needs and best affections of our nature,
and so has a proper fitness to overcome the resist
ance which it meets with from other causes, and to
win its way to a large and general acceptance. And
this is what happened; the Gospel gradually ex
tending its moral victory all along the line. The

xvi CONVICTION OF THE WORLD 281
world, as such, after a time of struggle and vio
lence, succumbed at last ; admitted faith in Christ
to be duty, and unbelief to be sin ; recognised his
claims to be righteous, and Himself to be the
standard and source of righteousness, and bowed
in distant fear before One who would " judge the
quick and the dead at his appearing and his
kingdom." This submission to Christ, and the
consequent Christianity of the leading nations of
the world, was the work of the Spirit, as being
wrought by the Gospel which his inspiration gave,
by preachers filled with his power, and (we may
add) by those wider influences by which at times
He moves multitudes in the way of preliminary
preparation. So far the world has been not only
convicted of error, but convinced of truth, and,
having identified itself with the Church of Christ
in respect of the confession of his name, exhibits
in large and lasting characters the success of the
witness of the Spirit.
Yet the controversy is not over because the
world and the Church thus interpenetrate each
other. A battle is not over, when the lines are no
longer seen, in opposite array, but are lost to view
in the confusion of close quarters or scattered fight.
Only those who can look from higher ground see
distinctly how things are going. Christendom has
ever shewn, and still shews too plainly, that the
conflict concerning sin, righteousness, and judg-

282 THE DISCOURSES chap.
ment is going on ; and within the area of superficial
conquest the true successes of the Spirit have to
be won in individual souls from age to age. In
the experience of human hearts the work goes on,
often as a keen and painful conflict, confuting
false reasonings and casting down vain defences,
overcoming error and wrong by truth and right,
and substituting for the principles of the world
the living word of Christ. Thus is the promised
Spirit at work among us, translating men from
the death of sin to the life of righteousness, and
from the fear of judgment to the joy of salvation.
"To Him, therefore, the gracious Comforter, who con
vinces us of sin, and of righteousness, and of judgment, and
to Jesus Christ, the Lord of our faith and our righteous
ness, by whom the Prince of this world was judged, and to
the blessed Father, who vouchsafed to send his Son and his
Spirit for the redemption and sanctification of mankind, be
all praise and thanksgiving and glory and adoration from
angels and saints world without end." x
1 Last words of Hare's " Mission of the Comforter."

ILLUMINATION OF THE CHURCH 283

CHAPTER XVII
ILLUMINATION OF THE CHURCH
v. 12-15
The outlines of a great history have been
drawn, creating an anxious outlook for the disci
ples ; for the work of the Spirit in the controversy
with the world involves the necessity of his work
in those who are to conduct it, and concerning this
they need information and assurance. Then there
is yet much to be said, as, indeed, there always is
in a last interview. And how much is often left
unsaid for want of time or for other reasons !
There is another reason here : —
" I have yet many things to say unto you, but ye cannot
bear them now."
If the Lord has them to say, they will be said,
but not now (apTi) at the present moment. At
the point which has been reached in preparation
and capacity, the minds of the hearers would be
unequal to sustain them : they would be like too
heavy a weight laid on one whose strength was
immature. Thankfully do we observe the consid-

284 THE DISCOURSES chap.
erateness of our Master's teaching, its proportion
to what minds can bear, its partial discoveries and
gradual developments, and its reticence till it is
time to speak. We trace this characteristic in
Jesus as an educator. He says things here which
He would not have said a year before ; and has
things yet to say which He will not say now under
present conditions of thought. The conditions
will be altered when the events have taken place.
After the death, the resurrection, the ascension,
and the coming of the Holy Ghost, these truths
will find their place in prepared hearts.
Who that knows his own mental history does
not feel grateful for these words ! They tell us
of tender consideration for immature stages of
thought and wise methods of gradual advance in
spiritual apprehension. Did not the prophet say
of the good Shepherd, "He shall gently lead those
that are with young " ? It was spoken not of
sheep, but of minds. He will not deal precipi
tately with the processes of travailing thought or
impatiently with yet imperfect conceptions. We
yield ourselves more trustfully to the Teacher
who knows what is in man, and leads his disciples
on as they are able to bear it.1
1 "The principle on which Christ conducts his teaching is
that the full greatness of a truth is not unveiled until the eye has
been strengthened, and a hope is not shattered until its compen
sation has been provided. It is because He is the Educator,
who in nature lets the blossoms fall only when the fruit forms,

xvii ILLUMINATION OF THE CHURCH 285
But these words of Jesus, besides their consid
erate tone, have also a distinctly important place
in the course of revelation. They decide a ques
tion of the greatest moment. It may be stated
thus : Are we to limit the teaching of Christ Him
self to the words recorded in the Gospels as spoken
by his lips? Does his authority extend to what
may seem to go further than this, in the testimo
nies of the Acts or the doctrine of the Epistles?
The question is, indeed, fully answered in other
ways ; but these words are a turning-point. Even
in his last recorded words, Jesus has not delivered
all that He has to communicate. He has yet
things to say, — many things, — and those of great
est weight and moment for the perfecting of his
doctrine.. How these communications will be
made, and what will be their nature, the following
words explain : —
" Howbeit, when he, the Spirit of truth, is come, he shall
guide you into all the truth ; for he shall not speak from
himself ; but what things soever he shall hear, these shall he
speak : and he shall declare unto you the things that are to
come. He shall glorify me : for he shall take of mine, and
and suffers the leaves of last autumn to remain on trees whose
young buds need such shelter. . . . There are in the teaching of
Christ, both in the Bible and in Providence, — reticences and
pauses which temper the truth to feeble minds as clouds chasten
light."— Sermons by J. Ker, D.D., 2d Series. Sermon on
"Christ's Reticence in teaching Truth," beautiful in thought
and expression.

286 THE DISCOURSES chap.
shall declare it unto you. . . . All things whatsoever the
Father hath are mine : therefore said I, that he taketh of
mine, and shall declare it unto you " (13—15).
It is a great promise, expressed with careful
precision. We note the distinct, emphatic words
— Me (_/__h>_.) the personal Agent, not an ema
nation or influence — the Spirit of truth (to irvevfia
tt) ? dXwOeias) assuring by his own nature the truth
that he teaches — when Me is come (Srav eXBrf), not
merely given, but coming, and that at a definite
time, when his fresh instructions will be opened — ¦
Me will lead you (68r)yrjo~ei, vfid<i) as a guide leads
in the way, by steady advance, rather than by
sudden revelation. It will be a leading the mind
forward according to its proper working, in appre
hensions that are cleared as they proceed. He
will lead you into all the truth (et? tt)v dXtjdeiav
iracrav), the truth, that is, of the Gospel, the word
of life and salvation, into all of it, completing the
communications already made.1
Those communications have indeed compre
hended all the truth, but, in respect of its higher
mysteries, implicitly and by anticipation. It could
not be otherwise. The teaching of Christ in the
flesh is a progressive course, implying events
which are near, but have not yet happened, and
1 " Cette verite, d'apres XIV. 6, c'est Jfisus lui-m.me, sa
personne, sa parole, son ceuvre. Voila le divin domaine dans
lequel I'Esprit leur servira de guide." — Godet.

xvii ILLUMINATION OF THE CHURCH 287
preparing a revelation wliich is yet to come. His
sayings, in their form parabolic, and in their method
occasional, provide in a remarkable manner the
materials and certificates of that revelation. But
they await their explanation from the events, and
their full interpretation by " the Spirit of promise."
That is here assured to the men then present, and
to such as shall be joined with them in their great
commission to mankind. Therefore, to them be
longed the promise in an exceptional sense, as first
recipients of the teaching which should lead them
into all the truth, in order that their words might
serve to lead others into it. Thus the apostolic
teaching is for all generations the teaching of the
Spirit, and we receive it as such, being sealed to us
by this promise. To use the words of Godet, " The
word xiv. 26, He shall bring all things to your
remembrance, whatsoever I have said unto you,
formulates the inspiration of our Gospels ; that in
the present verse formulates the inspiration of the
Epistles and Apocalypse."
Yet does the promise extend beyond this im
mediate and fundamental application. It is the
property of believing enquirers in all ages and
generations, to their unspeakable encouragement
and comfort ; and it is ever being fulfilled in
individual cases, though in various measures,
according as the work of the Spirit is conditioned
by the mental atmosphere through which He

288 THE DISCOURSES chap.
breathes. Only the truth, into which separate
souls or Christian societies are led by the Spirit
of truth, can never be any other than the truth,
" which was once for all delivered to the saints,"
by those who first "preached the Gospel (to the
world) with the Holy Ghost sent down from
heaven " (Jude iii. 2; 1 Pet. i. 12).
Lest it should be thought that this later stage
of teaching is not to be ranked with the first in
respect of divine authority, the Lord proceeds to
say that, as those former communications came
straight from the source of eternal truth, so shall
it be also with these. That which Jesus had
asserted of his own teaching in the past, the same
does He assert of that of the Paraclete in the
future. " He will not speak from Himself," as a
separate or secondary originator of revelation ;
rather, He shall be as one who hears on the one
side all that He speaks on the other.1
1 Augustin expresses the difficulty which he felt in regard to
this language as used concerning the Spirit. In the case of
Jesus it seems to him more easy to understand as applicable to
his position in human nature and to his words spoken in the
flesh. In the case of the Spirit, he finds the exposition in his
essential nature as derived and proceeding from the Father and
the Son, and concludes a careful argument by saying, " He will
not speak from Himself, because He is not from Himself ; but
what He shall hear, He will speak. From Him He will hear from
Whom He proceeds. For Him to hear is to know, and to know
is to be ; and from Him from Whom He proceeds is his being,
his knowing, and his hearing." He then deals with the question
of the future tense as superficially at variance with the eternal

xvii ILLUMINATION OF THE CHURCH 289
These things He shall shew or declare (dvayye-
Xet). It is a high-toned word, proper to the an
nouncement of things otherwise unknown. It is
used elsewhere of the announcements made by the
Apostles to the world (Acts xx. 20 ; 1 Pet. i. 12 ;
1 John i. 5, etc.), here of the like announcements
made by the Spirit to the Apostles, and is im
pressed by a threefold repetition at the close of
successive sentences.
The subjects of the information, thus to be
heard and given, are described in few, but grand
and comprehensive words; and first it is said,
" He shall shew you (to. ep^d/ieva) the coming
things." It is not only the gift of predictive
prophecy, partial and occasional as that was,
which is here intended. That would scarcely
have been placed in the forefront of this account
of the teaching of the Holy Ghost. Rather we
should read the words as closing the assertion of
the absolute truth of the teaching by a compre
hensive statement of its nature. "Whatsoever
he shall hear he will speak, and he will declare
to you the coming things." At such a prospect
expectation rises, imagination kindles, and infor
mation is sought. For its proper purposes it will
be given ; including, as I think, the whole dispen-
knowing and hearing. The whole argument exhibits the deeper
line of theological thought, for which every suggestion in this
discourse was taken. — In Joh. Evang. Tract. XCIX.
T

290 THE DISCOURSES chap.
sation of the future. There, in the realm of ex
pectation, the coming things (t_ ipxofieva) will
take the place of the coming One (6 epyo/ievo?)
on whose actual advent they ensue. The new
Covenant supplanting that which will vanish
away, the development of its truths and mysteries,
the powers of the world to come which it will dis
close, the life and experiences which it will create,
the forms in which it will express itself, the shape
and order of the Church, its extension over the
world, the course and consummation of its history
with the ultimate issues afterwards, such as they
appear in the Apocalypse or in St. Paul's doctrine
of the expectation and destiny of the creation
(Rom. viii.) and of the resurrection of the dead
and the eternal and glorious kingdom (1 Cor. xv.
and elsewhere), — these, I say, are the coming
things which the Spirit will bring out of darkness
into light.
This illumination of the future world of thought
and faith is to be concentrated in one focus,
namely, in the revelation of the glory of Jesus
Christ. He is the great subject of the witness
of the Spirit before the world and within the
Church. For conviction of the world it was
before said, " He shall testify of me." For teach
ing of the Church it is now said, " He shall glorify
me." Has this been done? How amply, how
fully, we see for ourselves as we turn to the apos-

xvii ILLUMINATION OF THE CHURCH 291
tolic writings. Jesus Christ shines forth in every
page in lofty testimonies, adoring ascriptions, doc
trinal expositions, and practical pleadings. And
as He was glorified at first in " the faith once for
all delivered to the saints," so has He been ever
since in the creeds and confessions, the liturgies
and doxologies, the hymns and celebrations, of the
whole Catholic Church ; and at the same time by
the trust and the love, the confidence and devo
tion, the labours and martyrdoms of believers in
all ages, "a great multitude which no man can
number of all nations and kindreds and peoples
and tongues." Thus in fact has the Spirit glori
fied the Lord Jesus in the Scriptures, in the
Church, and in the souls of men.
But, in the announcement made, there is more
than the fact, — there is the intimation of the lines
on which it should be done. " He shall glorify
me, for [_Vt, because] he shall take of mine and
shall declare it unto you." Only thus, indeed,
can any glorifying be true. It must consist in
the showing forth, not of accidents and acces
sories, but of that which truly belongs to the
person glorified, that which he is in himself and
has of his own. So it is in this great saying, " He
shall take of that which is mine " (e'/c tov ifiov).
One dares not distribute this collective word, or
break it up into particulars which would be short
of its meaning. But we observe that it contains

292 THE DISCOURSES chap.
a division in itself, for it is said, not that the
Spirit will declare to you that which is mine, but
that He will take out of that which is mine and
declare it to you. Not all that is Christ's, not all
that is known of Him in worlds above, or that
will be known by us hereafter, is matter of pres
ent revelation, but what constitutes his relations
with ourselves, and what for the present it con
cerns us to know.
For this saying the Lord gives a reason which
carries it into the depths of the mystery of the
Godhead. "All whatsoever the Father hath are
mine : therefore said I that he taketh of mine, and
shall declare it unto you." The assertions are
clear; but what means the word '¦'¦therefore"?
Perhaps we may understand it thus: All things
that will be communicated are indeed the Father's :
I have therefore called them mine, because not
these only, but all things whatsoever the Father
hath are mine : and it is out of those vast and
boundless treasures that the Spirit, "who search-
eth all things, yea, the deep things of God," takes
what it is seen fit that He should impart to men.
The saying completes the expression of the
consciousness which has pervaded the whole dis
course. From the first word, "Believe in God,
believe also in me," the sense of the ineffable
union has mingled with every successive topic;
and all the relations of Christ to his people, and

xvii ILLUMINATION OF THE CHURCH 293
of his people to Him, in the economy of grace
have been shewn to rest on the essential relations
of the Son to the Father and of the Father to the
Son in the co-eternal Godhead. These profound im
plications reach their close in the last words, to be
repeated a few moments after in the Prayer, with
even greater fulness. " All things that are mine
are thine, and thine are mine." In that Prayer
the consciousness which has pervaded the inter
course with men finds in communion with the
Father its explicit, unreserved, and serene expres
sion. This truth of the unity of nature and conse
quent community of possession in the Godhead
underlies and sustains all other truths, out of the
fulness of which the Spirit still takes the things
of Christ to shew unto us.
" Come, Holy Ghost, our souls inspire,
And lighten with celestial fire ;
Thou the anointing Spirit art
Who dost thy sevenfold gifts impart.
" Teach us to know the Father, Son,
And Thee of both to be but one ;
That through the ages all along,
This may be our endless song,
Praise to thine eternal merit,
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit."

294 THE DISCOURSES

CHAPTER XVIII
THE SORROW AND THE JOY
v. 16-22
The discourse draws to an end. Its consoling
and revealing words have been sufficient. Its
instructions have fixed the faith resulting from
the past, and its promises have prepared the higher
faith of the future. The manifestation in the flesh
has been shewn as passing into the manifestation
by the Spirit. Through the whole has run the
line of implied revelation of the eternal Godhead,
in the relations of the Son to the Father and of
the Spirit to the Father and the Son. The inter
est of early writers was ever most strongly at
tracted to these theological implications : that of
later commentators has been more restricted to the
primary application of the words to the mind of
the disciple, at the time and to the subsequent
Christian life ; but these instructions are given as
resting on the higher mysteries behind them.
From the great subjects which have been opened
Jesus turns to his hearers, to prepare their minds

xviii THE SORROW AND THE JOY 295
for the changes so close at hand ; for things are
now to be transacted at brief intervals and in
quick succession.
" A little while [He says], and ye behold me no more ;
and again a little while, and ye shall see me." (The addi
tion in this place of " because I go to the Father " is excluded
by the best authorities.)
In this short sudden word there was something
startling in its notice of quickly coming changes,
and something perplexing in the language which
described them. It was left to take effect. The
Speaker must have paused ; for the hearers, who
till now had listened in silence, began to question
among themselves. They had heard much that was
beyond them. Each successive saying might have
awakened wonder and prompted enquiry. It was
so at first. Then they felt, as usual, free to say
what occurred. Peter, Thomas, Philip, Jude, had
each taken up a word which had struck him, and
uttered at the moment what he felt. But soon
they spoke no more. How natural was this effect
of the discourse as it proceeded ! While they lis
tened, they saw that greater depths of truth were
opening out before them ; they felt themselves on
the threshold of some unknown spiritual change,
while their Master's person as He spake of Himself
seemed ever assuming a more divine mystery and
majesty. Such impressions would secure a rapt, if
perplexed, attention. A sense of awe would steal

296 THE DISCOURSES chap.
over their minds, while at the same time "sorrow
filled their hearts" at the plain intimations of
departure and the tone of a great farewell. It is
likely that there were pauses between some of the
announcements previously made which would have
given opportunity to speak. Certainly there was
one such, when it was said, "Arise, let us go
hence." But they remained silent; and now,
though "desirous to ask Him," they could not
venture to do so. Not all, but some of the disci
ples (etc twv fiaOnTiov) began talking in low tones
to one another.
" What is this that he saith unto us : A little while and
ye behold me not ; and again a little while and ye shall see
me: and Because I go to the Father? They said therefore,
What is this that he saith, A little while? We know not
what he saith."
We cannot wonder at their questions. The two
little intervals of time, — the being not seen and
seen again, — and this in view of what had been
said before, " because I go to the Father," — these
are such words as events only can explain. Even
commentators who have the events to guide them
have differed in their interpretations ; and the
most painstaking of them all has said, " The longer
we pause before the Word, the more cause do we
find to ask, even as expositors, What is it that he
saith?" (Stier). But the discrimination in the
verbs employed affords sufficient guidance, and

xviii THE SORROW AND THE JOY 297
leads us to interpret as follows. A little while (it
was but a few hours), and then " ye behold me no
longer " (ovkbtv OecopetTe fie) : I shall have passed
from the visible scene and from the observation of
spectators (that is the kind of seeing which the
verb intends). " Again a little while " (of but little
longer duration),1 and " ye shall see me " (oyfreadi
p,e), with another kind of seeing, one in which the
natural sight becomes spiritual vision; and my
presence will be no part of the visible scene, yet
assured by occasional discoveries to the end that it
may be recognised for ever. The risen and living
Lord shewed Himself to the eye of sense that He
might remain before the eye of faith, not as a
memory, but as a presence, once impressed in a
few hours of partial disclosure, then perpetuated
through all ages by the revelation of the Spirit.
This answer will come to the questioning disci
ples in the swift course of time. What they need
now is, not information how these things will be,
but some preparation for their own experiences
under them ; and this they receive.
" Jesus perceived that they were desirous to ask him, and
he said unto them, Do ye enquire among yourselves concern
ing this, that I said, A little while, and ye behold me not,
1 " That piKpbti points in both cases to an interval needs no
proof on account of the ird\iv. The translation is false, there
fore, which gives And then shall ye for a while, a little time, see
me (as if tcard pt,npbv), for I go (presently again) my way to the
Father." — Stier.

298 THE DISCOURSES chap.
and again a little while, and ye shall see me? Verily, verily,
I say unto you that ye shall weep and lament, but the world
shall rejoice : ye shall be sorrowful, but your sorrow shall
be turned into joy.
" A woman when she is in travail hath sorrow, because
her hour is come : but when she is delivered of the child,
she remembereth no more the anguish, for the joy that a
man is born into the world.
" And ye therefore now have sorrow : but I will see you
again, and your heart shall rejoice, and your joy no one
taketh away from you" (19-22).
Jesus notices what is passing among them, ap
prehends their difficulty, and Himself takes up
the question which they have feared to ask, as at
other times He had been used to note their words
and interpret their thoughts. Here, as ofttimes,
his answer meets the enquiry rather in its spirit
than its words. He tells them what these oppo
site conditions, so near at hand, so quickly suc
ceeding each other, will be to them, what will be
their effects in sorrow and in joy.
The time when they behold Him not will be
one of sorrow indeed, of bitter and, as it will seem,
hopeless grief. "Ye," He says, "shall weep and
lament." There is no doubt what manner of
mourning this intends. It is mourning for the
dead, to which the words employed properly ap
ply (KXavcreTe Kai 6pr)vr]o-eTe vfieli). It will be
mourning for a dead Christ, and therefore, for a
dead cause, over which the world will rejoice, as

xviii THE SORROW AND THE JOY 299
over a power which it has conquered and crushed.
Yes ! He says again, Ye shall be sorrowful, sor
row stricken (XvirvOijo-eo'de). Well did He under
stand that sorrow of theirs which would be an
attendant shadow of his own. He saw them in
the desolation of bereavement, confounded by the
horror and mystery of an inexplicable event, and
feeling as if all faith and hope were gone from
their souls, because He who had inspired them was
dead. Yet shall it be but " a little while," before
their sorrow " shall be turned into joy " (et? %apdv
yevrjaerai), shall pass into it in the way of natural
consequence, the very cause of the sorrow proving
to be the cause of the joy.
So it is, as in the often-cited example of " the
woman when she is bringing forth " (oTav tiktv)-
It has its full meaning here. The inevitable
"hour come," its fearfulness and its pains, — pains
which are the conditions of the result, — the short
ness of the time, the greatness of the change, the
joy of new experiences and expectations on account
of a life begun and a " man born into the world " —
all concur to describe the critical hour in the great
history of redemption. I cannot agree with those
who would reduce the resemblance only to the
succession and contrast of sorrow and joy, exclu
sive of the fundamental fact of birth, which is in
each case the cause of all. In Christ the human
nature, which He had made his own, received a

300 THE DISCOURSES chap.
new birth through death and resurrection. He
came forth, as it is written, "the firstborn from
the dead " (Col. i. 18) ; and, through a crisis in
wliich the analogy holds, as the Apostles expressed
it, " God having loosed (.-a? chBlv a?) the birth-
pains of death, because it was not possible that he
should be holden of it " (Acts ii. 24).
To the disciples at the time, this character of
the crisis was, of course, unknown ; yet were they
participants in its experiences through their real
union with their Lord, a reason which is implied
in the word " therefore." " And ye therefore now
have sorrow." The association of their hearts
with Him made them, in their own way, sharers in
the anguish of the time, as it afterwards made
them sharers in the joy which followed. The
sorrow is spoken of in the present tense (vvv fiev
e^ere), " Ye have it now " ; for its first sad amaze
ment was already upon them. The joy is expressed
in the future as lying beyond it. " I will see you
— your hearts shall rejoice." There can be no
reasonable doubt as to the moment of the change.
As the sorrow was felt under the shadow of death,
so the joy was found in the light of resurrection.
It broke upon them, when "Jesus stood in the
midst, and said unto them, Peace be unto you;
and when he had so said, he shewed them his
hands and his side. Then were the disciples glad
when they saw the Lord " (xx. 19, 20).

xviii THE SORROW AND THE JOY 301
Some recent commentators, guarding, as it ap
pears, against the limitation of this promise to
"the external seeing of the Risen One," have
shewn a disposition to slight the application to the
experiences of the Resurrection, in favour of " the
beholding Christ in the Spirit." They might as
well slight the day of Pentecost in regard to the
promise of the coming of the Holy Ghost on
account of subsequent presence. All turns on the
Resurrection ; and without the experiences of that
time there would have been no beholding Christ
in the Spirit. Then was the morning hour. The
morning is part of the day, and, if with a less
perfect light, has a freshness that is all its own ;
but its joy consists in being the commencement of
the day. So was it with the first fulfilment of the
promises. "Ye shall see me — I will see you
again." Its gladness was its own in freshness and
surprise, but really as the earnest of permanent
joy. It was a seeing that could never be lost or
dimmed, but on the contrary grew clearer as it
became more spiritual. Therefore is it not only
said, " Your hearts shall rejoice," but also, " Your
joy no one taketh away from you." How could it
be taken away ? " Christ, being raised from the
dead, dieth no more : death hath no more domain
over him. For the death that he died, he died
unto sin once ; but the life that he liveth, he
liveth unto God" (Rom. vi. 9, 10). The living

302 THE DISCOURSES chap.
Lord is the joy of his people ; and, because his life
is eternal, their joy is permanent and secure. Let
there be in our hearts the faith which unites our
lives with his, and there comes a crowning sense
of secure possession of all which that life includes.
Then "we are persuaded, that neither death nor
life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things pres
ent, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height,
nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to
separate us from the love of God which is Christ
Jesus our Lord."
These are the confidences of faith, belonging
to the day which now is. Beyond it there is
another day to break, with another kind of seeing,
and another kind of joy ; but that final prospect is
only implicitly included in the language of the
present promises.

THE INTERCOURSE OF THE FUTURE 303

CHAPTER XIX
THE INTERCOURSE OF THE FUTURE
v. 23-28
The question on the mystery of disappearance
and reappearance has obtained a larger explana
tion, not as to the manner of it, but as to the
character of this "little while," as the inevitable
hour of transition, and as to its effects in brief
anguish and lasting joy. But another question
has been raised by the enquiry itself, by the fear
to utter it, so unlike the usual habit, and by the
spontaneous answer which it obtained. These
mutual communications which have hitherto sub
sisted — are they reaching their end ? This inter
course between the Master and the disciples —
how can it be resumed after the great changes
which are at hand? The verses which follow
deal with the subject of enquiries and applications
on the one side, and answers and instructions on
the other, — in fact, the intercourse of the future
as compared with that of the past. They there
fore form one section, notwithstanding apparent

304 THE DISCOURSES chap.
breaks, and a section that comes naturally at the
close of the discourse, which is itself the close of
these communications in the flesh.
How unspeakably precious has this intercourse
been ! how quickening and elevating and inform
ing ! how inexhaustible in its interest ! how open
and easy in its confidence ! Freely have the disci
ples uttered the thoughts that were in their minds,
and asked the questions that rose to their lips,
save only in some exceptional moments when it
is noticed that a special sense of awe arrested the
usual habit.
" What might this parable mean ? — Declare unto us this
parable ? — Why speakest thou to them in parables ?— Who
then can be saved? — Knowest thou that the Pharisees were
offended? — How say the Scribes that Elias must first come ?
— Why could not we cast him out? — We have left all and
followed thee; what shall we have therefore? — Lord, add
to us faith. — Lord, teach us to pray."
Thus naturally and truthfully had they been
used to ask; and ready and kindly were the
answers given to their words, and still more to
their thoughts. There never was, there never
could be, any converse so stimulating to the mind,
so purifying to the heart, one which so enlightened
ignorance and corrected error, which entered so
deeply into the secrets of the soul, or threw such
clear light on the mysteries of life, or gave such
large materials for reflection, or such sudden

xix THE INTERCOURSE OF THE FUTURE 305
flashes of discovery of the heights and the depths
of truth. Bare and desolate in comparison seemed
every other quarter to which an enquiring mind
could turn: "Lord, to whom shall we go? Thou
hast words of eternal life." What is now to become
of this intercourse, which has been the happiness
of the past, and this freedom of enquiry, which has
been a main feature of it? How shall it be in this
respect with the future day when the change an
nounced has come ?
" In that day ye shall ask me nothing. Verily, verily, I
say unto you, If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will
give it you in my name. Hitherto have ye asked nothing in
my name : ask, and ye shall receive, that your joy may be
fulfilled. " These things have I spoken unto you in proverbs : the
hour cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in prov
erbs, but shall tell you plainly of the Father. In that day
ye shall ask in my name : and I say not unto you that I will
pray the Father for you ; for the Father himself loveth you,
because ye have loved me, and have believed that I came
forth from the Father " (23-28).
The time, then, of familiar converse will be over :
yet it will prove to be not so much terminated as
transmuted. "In that day" another kind of inter
course will exist.
That day broke at the Resurrection and attained
its settled light at Pentecost. Then "the hour
came " from which things would be as they are
here described. In the occasional intercourse of

306 THE DISCOURSES chap.
the forty days the disciples did ask something and
hear something as of old, yet the former day of
living and conversing together was over, and the
new day had begun. Only there was granted an
intervening period of twilight in which the Pres
ence shewn at unexpected moments and vanishing
from sight, and sometimes rather felt than seen,
prepared them for that other kind of seeing and
for that other kind of intercourse which were to
ensue and to endure.
But how will that intercourse be new? Where
in will it differ from that which it succeeds ? This
is what the Lord tells them; assuring its future
privileges by the " Amen, amen, I say unto you,"
which indicates the strength of the affirmation
and the importance of the revelation. There will
be differences, He says, both in the human appli
cations and in the divine response.
The applications of the disciples will be ad
dressed more immediately to God, and will accord
ingly take another tone. The line of separation
is drawn by the-words, "In that day ye shall ask
me nothing," or more literally and more emphati
cally (e fie ovk epcoTtjaeTe ov8ev), " (Of) me ye shall
not ask anything. Verily, verily, I say unto you,
If ye shall ask anything of the Father, he will
give it you in my name." The difference in the
Person to be immediately addressed is marked by
the arrangement of the words. Jesus present in

xix THE INTERCOURSE OF THE FUTURE 307
the flesh has been the recipient of questions and
appeals, which are now to be addressed to the
Father to whom He goes ; for He came not to
arrest our minds on Himself, but " to bring us to
God." Yet does He not cease to have his part in
this intercourse which He opens to his people.
The passage combines, or so to speak interfuses,
with wonderful completeness, the seemingly diverse
truths of an immediate access to God and the me
diation which creates it. It is an access open and
direct, and Jesus seems, in a sense, to retire, in
order to make it so. " Me ye shall ask nothing.
What ye shall ask the Father He shall give. I
say not that I will pray the Father for you, for the
Father himself loveth you." Yet does He with
draw from one position only to occupy another;
He ceases to interpose in order to introduce.
That which is given of the Father is given in his
name ; that which is asked by the applicant is to
be asked in his name. Of that which is asked in
his name He says, "I will do it"; and of the
Father's personal love and ready welcome, that
it is " because ye have loved Me and believed that
I came forth from Him." Thus, as the Apostles
taught, He gives us " access with confidence," but
it is by the faith of Him, and it is " through Him
that we have access by one Spirit unto the Father"
(Eph. ii. 18; iii. 12). So the lines are drawn in
these last words for the doctrine of the Church

308 THE DISCOURSES chap.
and for the consciousness of Christians on the
great subject of intercourse with God. Thus by
these words of Jesus does the future doctrine of
the Church receive its direction as to the terms
and character of communion with God in Christ.
There have been deflections from the line thus
laid down. On the one side, there has been an
inclination to slight the necessity of the divine
economy of mediation, and to treat the access
described as a natural and independent right in
our relation to the Father of the Spirits of all flesh.
On the other side, there has been a tendency to
give to this mediation a character too separate,
and, as it were, substantial, almost arresting the
mind upon itself. I cannot but think that a cer
tain cast of evangelical religion among us has
addressed its hymns and devotions directly and
singly to the name of " Jesus " in a disproportion
ate degree, and in a tone not quite accordant with
his own teaching on access to the Father. It is a
failure, not in truth, but in the proportions and
relations of the truth.
On the great ordinance of the use in prayer of
the prevailing name, there has been a previous
occasion to speak. Its significance and impor
tance were impressed in the early part of the dis
course, as they are reaffirmed at its close. There
it was in connexion with the works for which
special gifts would be needed ; here it is in respect

xix THE INTERCOURSE OF THE FUTURE 309
of general intercourse with God. But, as is fit,
it is in this place expressed more distinctly, as
differentiating the communications of the future
from those of the past, when, from the nature of
the case, it would have been premature. " Hith
erto have ye asked nothing in my name." The
reasons for doing so were not yet disclosed. It is
also expressed more largely as the means for attain
ing a perfected joy. "Ask and ye shall receive,
that your joy may be fulfilled" (ireirXrjpafievn).
The joy which in its essence none can take away
from us, in its measure may be more scanty or
more full, in proportion to our practical and
habitual use of the vast resources opened in this
access to the Father.
The tone of the communion of the future is yet
further distinguished from that of the past by a
change in the word which describes it. Two
words are employed for asking, for which the
English supplies no discriminating equivalents:
the one (eptoTaco) means asking, primarily in the
way of enquiry, secondarily in that of request;
the other (aheco) asking, in the way of petition.
The first word belongs to terms of a nearer rela
tionship than the second does. The first is used
(v. 19) of the enquiries addressed to Jesus by the
disciples (which, it is said, are soon to cease), and
also (v. 26) of the applications of the Son to the
Father. The second is substituted (v. 23-24) to

310 THE DISCOURSES chap.
express the applications of the disciples to God.1
This verbal distinction implies the difference in
the intercourse of the future dispensation, as com
pared with that of the past, on its human side ;
that is, in the applications of men to God.
On the other side, a change is announced in the
character of the divine communications. " These
things have I spoken to you in proverbs : the hour
cometh when I shall no more speak unto you in
proverbs, but shall tell you plainly of the Father."
The Teacher will be still the same, but (so to
speak) his style will change. It is obvious that
the words, " These things have I spoken to you,"
apply not to this discourse only, though in it the
proverbial character is conspicuous. It applies to
the general teaching in the time which is ending,
from which that of the coming time will differ.
The difference will be that of speaking plainly
(irappno-la) instead of speaking in proverbs (ev
Trapotfilais:). We have no better word than " proverbs," but,
as commonly used, it bears too narrow a meaning.
We must take it as describing a prevailing char
acter of our Lord's personal teaching. This we
1 The word ipwrdu is also, in the prayer which follows, the
address of Jesus to the Father (xvii. 9, 15, 20). I nowhere find
it employed of the intercourse of men with God, save in one
case of an enquiry rather than an intercession for others (1 John
v. 16), where there is a significant change from the words dntu
and atrripa, which express the actual petitions.

xix THE INTERCOURSE OF THE FUTURE 311
observe, not only in the large amount of professed
parables, but in a habit of proverbial sayings, —
sayings, that is, which glance by us as condensed
and momentary parables ; sidelong intimations of
what can scarcely be said directly ; suggestions of
much which it would take long to tell; lessons
drawn from the visible scene, and interpreting the
eloquence of nature. Often do these sayings take
the shape of proverbs, and have, in fact, become
proverbs of his kingdom, being complete in them
selves, terse and pointed, fashioned for common
memory and common use ; sometimes, by strong
antithesis or seeming parodox, fitted to arouse
reflection, and to fix on the mind some pregnant
truth or principle of thought or conduct. This
character of our Lord's teaching is peculiar and
distinctive and proper to a ministry which was to
comprise the substance of an entire revelation, yet
only to initiate the exposition of it. That initia
tory purpose is asserted in this discourse ; and
the form or method of instruction is here repre
sented as an evidence that the time for shewing
plainly had not then come, but also as a pledge
that it is about to follow.
This plainness (irappncria) which is to distin
guish the communications of the future has on its
side a larger sense than that of mere plainness of
expression. It intends that freedom of speech
which follows when reserve is laid aside. Used

312 THE DISCOURSES chap.
adverbially, as here, it is rendered in different
places by the words "openly," "boldly," "plainly";
and as a substantive by " boldness," " freedom of
speech," "confidence." The promise is that the
reserve imposed by a yet unfinished history, by a
manifestation in the flesh, by the incapacity of the
hearers, and by their graduated education, will
then be succeeded by clear, full, unrestricted in
formation, fitted to create in those who receive it
that "full assurance of understanding" which
contributes so largely to the "full assurance of
faith." Thus our Lord undertook to teach, and
thus He did teach in the dispensation of the
Spirit, informing first "the Apostles whom He
had chosen," and through them, and with them,
the Church which they founded.
The subject of this teaching is said to be " con
cerning the Father " (irepl tov iraTpos;) ; and the
verb here translated " tell " connects the teaching
with the Father as its source (dirayyeXw, accord
ing to the best reading). The mention of the
highest subject includes all that is derived from
or subordinate to it ; in other words, all relations
of God with men. So is Jesus Christ in heaven
the mediator in the communications of God to
man ; and so also is He mediator in the communi
cations of man to God, for in these "Ye will ask
in my name." Yet, as already observed, this
action is guarded from an error which might

xix THE INTERCOURSE OF THE FUTURE 313
lessen the fulness of the access which He gives.
" I will tell you concerning the Father — but I
say not that I (iyco) will ask the Father concern
ing you " ; or (less literally), " that I will pray the
Father for you," in such a sense as to supersede
your own rights of welcome.
As some minds have felt a difficulty in this
saying, and as its subject is one of prime impor
tance, the following observations may be made : —
1. It is one statement, in which the first part
makes the second more emphatic, and guards
against the feeling that there is any unwillingness
in the Hearer of prayer, which the pleading of the
Son must overcome.
2. The wording is guarded. " I do not say that
I will pray the Father for you." l He does not
say that He will, neither does He say that He will
not. Immediately after He is heard saying, "I
pray for them (irepl avToov epwToo, the same words
as here), for them whom thou hast given me "
(xvii. 9), an earnest of that enduring office of
which it is written, " Who is at the right hand of
God, who also maketh intercession for us." The
1 I cannot but think that in the rendering, " I will pray the
Father for you," the Revisers have failed to give the antithesis
which is presented in irepl tov irarpos dirayy e\fi ifitv and (pur^au
tov iraripa irepl ipiiv. I will tell you concerning the Father —
I will ask the Father concerning you. The translation — I will
pray for you — requires that the words "pray"and "for"be
taken in their larger sense.

314 THE DISCOURSES chap.
present words avoid any denial of such general
intercession, while obviating a probable miscon
struction. 3. The personal interest at the throne of grace
is ascribed to a definite reason. " Because ye have
loved me and have believed that I came forth
from God." In proportion as the petitioner may
have fallen short of this condition, and have need
of restoration to it, there will be felt a need for
a more special intercession. So this Evangelist
writes in his Epistle, " These things write I unto
you, that ye sin not ; but if any man sin, we have
an Advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the
righteous ; and he is the propitiation for our sins "
(1 John ii. 1). It is the position of a Christian
as having sinned (evidently by definite act) which
is provided for in the exercise of the Advocate's
office, and by his righteousness which covers the
sin of the offender. In penitence and the pressing
sense of sin there is refuge in this specific office
of Christ, to which we turn with an authorised
and consoling trust.
" When I have erred and gone astray
Afar from thine, and wisdom's, way,
And see no glimmering, guiding ray,
Then, Saviour, plead for me.
When Satan, by my sins made bold,
Strives, from thy cross, to loose my hold,
Then with thy pitying arms enfold,
And plead, O plead for me."

xix THE INTERCOURSE OF THE FUTURE 315
The communications with God intended in the
text are of another kind. They are those of the
normal state of confidence, proper to active love
to Jesus and settled faith in Him.
That love and faith are here recognised in the
disciples, and they are assured of the acceptance
and communion which will ensue. The love is
expressed as that of personal affection (ire<f>iXrj-
Kare), which makes them friends of Christ. But
this would have been an incomplete condition
without the definite faith. " Ye have believed
that I came forth from the Father." Both must
go together to create the true relations with
Christ. There is need at all times to assert it;
there is a special need now. There is a cast of
religion among us which feels the wonderful at
traction of the person of Christ, and is eloquent
in sincere expressions of admiration and affection
for Him as known in history, but which remains
silent before his higher claims, and does not
advance into the faith which "believes that He
came forth from the Father" in the sense in
which He Himself asserts it. But this faith is
the turning-point, including, in the way of neces
sary consequence, all his teaching, his work, and
his nature. Jesus sees that his disciples have
really, in measure, attained it. He recognises
that attainment here, and again affirms it in a still
more solemn moment. " Now they know that all

316 THE DISCOURSES chap.
things whatsoever thou hast given me are from
thee : for the words which thou gavest me I have
given them: and they have received them, and
knew of a truth that I came forth from thee,
and they believed that thou didst send me "
(xvii. 7, 8).
The faith thus described is the key of the situa
tion. It will unlock and open all the treasures
that are in Christ. Therefore is it taken as a
sufficient conclusion to what has been taught and
learned, and becomes the crowning word in a final
affirmation, which sets the seal upon this faith and
summarises in brief and precise words the mission
of Christ in relation to the Father and to the
world, as interpreted by its origin and its end.
" I came out from the Father and am come into the world.
Again I leave the world and go to the Father."
According to the preferable reading the significant
change of the preposition (_« in place of irapd)
makes the truth as enunciated by the Lord deeper
than the truth as apprehended by the disciples.1
1 On this point it is sufficient to cite the note of our most
careful commentator:
" No phrase could express more completely unity of essence
than the true original of these words (e%ij\8ov itc). Thus the
Lord, while he recognises the faith of the disciples, lays before
them a revelation of deeper mysteries. The verse is, indeed,
a brief summary of the whole historic work of Christ ; clause
answers to clause : the Mission, the Nativity ; the Passion, the
Ascension." — Westcott.

xix THE INTERCOURSE OF THE FUTURE 317
But however it may be read, and however it was
then apprehended, one thing was certain. This
last utterance of Jesus was decisive on the char
acter of his appearing in the world. He was not,
then, as He had seemed to be, a member of the
human family and a part of the visible scene in
the same sense that other men are. " I am come
into the world and again I leave the world," are
acts of personal will, making life on earth a volun
tary visit. " I came out from the Father, and I
go to the Father " are revelations of an eternal
home in God. Thus the life of Jesus upon earth
stands out in a new light, cast upon its brief pas
sage by its origin and its end, and thrown into
high relief on the background of an eternity before
it and after it. What must be the purpose of such
a visit to the world ! What must be the efficacy
of its work, and the authority of its words ! Does
not this explain much that had been past compre
hension? Does it not make miracle natural, and
deep sayings inevitable ? Certainly there is a
proportion in things, above all in things divine :
and He who " came forth from the Father and was
come into the world, and again was leaving the
world to go to the Father" must have come for
a predestined purpose to which word and deed
would correspond. The special acts are, then, no
longer matter for wonder; the wonder would be
if they had not been special. Such a mission

318 THE DISCOURSES chap.
must have its own laws of necessity (to Seov) and
of fitness (to trpeirov). This announcement, not
new, but now more , plainly made, might well be
felt to harmonise all that has been spoken and
interpret all that has been done.

THE LAST WORDS 319

CHAPTER XX
THE LAST WORDS
v. 29-33
Now no longer questioning with one another,
but speaking out with common voice.
" His disciples say, Lo, now speakest thou plainly, and
speakest no proverb. Now know we that thou knowest all
things, and needest not that any man should ask thee : By
this we believe that thou earnest forth from God " (29, 30).
They speak as men who find their thoughts under
stood, and feel their minds relieved. We almost
wonder at this decisive effect of a saying, which
seems but little in advance of what had been
spoken before. But the effect is evident. The
word had been, to them, a concise interpretation
of their Lord's mission and person, making cle^r
and certain what had been dimly or doubtfully
apprehended. Jesus had said that a time was
coming when He would speak plainly ; and He
is speaking plainly now : a time when they would
not ask Him anything; and now they have not
needed to ask. The spontaneous word has an-

320 THE DISCOURSES chap.
swered and dispelled the last hesitations of faith.
"By this," they cry, or (more literally) "In this,"
— this sense of a direct communion and inter-
penetration of spirit, — " in this we believe that
thou earnest forth from God." 1
The rejoinder comes quickly, falling strangely
on their ears :
"Jesus answered them, Do ye now believe? Behold, the
hour cometh, yea, is now come, that ye shall be scattered,
every man to his own, and shall leave me alone" (31, 32).
Well might the question be asked; if the faith
which should bring confidence, elevation, and
strength will break down in an instant, even in
the course of the next hour. Yet is the faith
real. It has just been recognised : " Ye have be
lieved that I came forth from the Father" (27).
A moment later it will be still more solemnly
affirmed. " They have known, of a truth, that I
came forth from thee ; and they believed that thou
didst send me" (xvii. 8). Hence many commen
tators,2 thinking that the faith cannot be ques
tioned, read the words as indicative, not as inter-
1 It is observable that the three prepositions used in the sev
eral statements, and all rendered "from," give precisely three
different measures of apprehension of the truth: dir6 (here)
gives the least defined relation, expressed by the disciples them
selves ; irapd (v. 27), the more close and personal, virtually
recognised by them ; e. (v. 28), the most intimate and pro
found, present to the mind of the Lord.
2 E.g. Bengel, Luthardt, Godet, Stier.

xx THE LAST WORDS 321
rogative: "Now ye do believe." But it is better
as we read it, connecting more naturally with what
follows. The question is not a denial, nor even a
doubt on the part of the speaker: rather it is
an exclamation prompted by the scene which rises
to his view. In all its striking contrast between
word and deed, it would, of itself, and to one
who did not know the heart, suggest a question
of dissent. The " now " wliich the disciples had
alleged as of a state attained, is altered to another
"now," expressive of the actual juncture,1 the
very moment. "Behold," He says, "the hour
cometh, yea, is come, that ye shall be scattered,
every man to his own, and shall leave me alone."
What kind of faith is this which will be tested
with such a result? If it be true, yet how doubt
ful at the time ! how unlike what was supposed !
how precarious and infirm! To many believers
have such moments of failure come, with like
experimental discoveries. Rather, we must say,
who has not known them? The question, "Do
you now believe ? " has often struck on our hearts
with the awakening power of a just reproach.
The words which tell of the weakness of the
disciples, at the same time reveal the feelings of
the Lord. He sees these lovers and believers,
such as they were, all the friends He had on
earth, in sudden panic fugitive and gone, scat-
1 vvv otdapev — &pn Trior cue. e ;
V

322 THE DISCOURSES chap.
tered each to his own, the very brotherhood broken
as having lost its unifying centre, and Himself
left alone with his enemies. It must be so.
"Smite the shepherd," it was written, "and the
sheep shall be scattered." Alone He must be ;
for none could share his work, as was said in
prophecy, "I have trodden the wine press alone,
and of the people there was none with me." But
neither the fulfilment of prophecy, nor the neces
sary course of events, preclude the natural feelings.
Even when there can be no partnership or help,
there is comfort in faithful companionship. Jesus
owned that comfort when He said, "Ye are they
who have continued with me in my temptations."
He asked it when He said, " Tarry ye here and
watch with me." If all loving hearts know it,
it could not but be known to the most loving
heart of all. But it is to be lost at the crisis of
need ; and there is not merely a statement of fact,
but a genuine tone of sadness in the words " And
shall leave me alone." Desertion and loneliness
in the day of danger and distress are always
deeply felt. So it was with St. Paul, "At my
first answer no man stood with me, but all for
sook me : may it not be laid to their charge " (2
Tim. iv. 16). Not with soreness, but with tender
ness, is this trial mentioned here. It was right
that the hearers should know that it was felt:
yet not in the way of reproach, for a consoling
thought goes with it.

xx THE LAST WORDS 323
" Ye shall leave me alone,
" And I am not alone ; because the Father is with me."
Then there is no real loneliness. The forsaking
of men and the loss of human companionship are
sad, but the unseen fellowship remains as an un
changing consciousness. Only as the climax of
anguish will there be the final mystery of its
suspension. The bitter cry, "My God, my God,
why hast thou forsaken me ? " tells of the opposite
and habitual experience over which that dark
cloud was passing.
" I am not alone, because the Father is with
me." Very thankful have believers ever been for
these words, which find, as they were meant to
find, an echo in their hearts. Loneliness is one
of the trials incidental to the Christian state, and
in some circumstances a necessary consequence
of its principles. A bereaved person left alone
in the world, a solitary missionary among the
heathen, a child of God in tents of Kedar, a godly
member of an irreligious family, a pastor labour
ing without help or sympathy, — these and others
in like conditions have known the truth and com
fort of the words, being well assured that, if they
belonged to Christ, they belong of right to all that
are in Him. For them, indeed, this presence of
the Father is made more close as coming through
the presence of the Son. " Truly our fellowship
is with the Father and with his Son Jesus Christ "

324 THE DISCOURSES chap.
(1 John i. 3). Thus through all ages and in vari
ous trials and emergencies have the disciples of
Jesus found his words fulfilled in themselves,
" Not alone, because the Father is with me."
The time is now past, and the discourse must
end. The needful teaching has been left to the
Church for ever, but in words addressed to the
men there present, in loving care for their actual
necessities and for the experiences on which they
must enter.
" These things have I spoken unto you that in me ye may
have peace. In the world ye shall have tribulation ; but be
of good cheer : I have overcome the world " (33).
Peace, Tribulation, Victory, — these are the
watchwords of the future, and each is assigned to
its own source and sphere. Peace, the compre
hensive blessing, the sense that all is well, the
state of a mind' at rest, is to be had in Christ,
the grounds of it being in his person, and the
enjoyment of it in union with Him. To lead into
that union and peace all these words have been
spoken. Tribulation, the pressure of outward
suffering and inward trials of feeling, is to be
endured in the world, because of its opposing
forces, its antagonistic spirit, and its generally
disordered state. This experience already exists :
(" ye have " is the true reading, not " ye shall
have ") it is consequent on contact with the world.

xx THE LAST WORDS 325
Thus " the Church and the Christian lead a two
fold life, in Christ and in the world at the same
time, the former as exact and real as the latter," 1
and, it may be added, the former often more con
sciously realised when the latter is most dark and
troubled. Yet this co-existence of peace with tribulation
could not satisfy, and indeed could not be main
tained, if peace were all. It is not all; there is
victory, and it is gained already. "Be of good
cheer: I have overcome the world." The word
dapo-eiTe — "be of good cheer, of good courage,
take heart, be confident" — supposes here, as else
where, that there is cause for depression.2 Indeed,
there was abundant cause in all that was to be
encountered and all that was to be borne. But
there was even greater cause for courage and con
fidence. Victory is secured. " I have conquered
(iyd> vevUrjKa) ; I have overcome the world." The
victory had been continuous all along the line of
conflict. The work of Jesus had been aggressive
against the spirit and habits of the world, and
defensive against its adverse influences and malig
nant efforts. These had been defeated, and He
had maintained his position with unchanging
1 Luthardt.
2 Bdpaei rttcvov, Be of good cheer, child : thy sins are for
given thee (Matt. ix. 2). Bdpaei. Biyovrep, Be of good cheer,
daughter: thy faith hath made thee whole (ix. 22). Bapo-eTre,
Be of good cheer ; it is I, be not afraid (xiv. 27).

326 THE DISCOURSES chap.
superiority and achieved his object of establishing
in the heart of the world the principles of truth
and the powers of salvation. The victory, then,
was already decided, to be on the morrow per
fected on the cross; whereby not only the world
was conquered in its last desperate effort, but its
Prince was judged and crushed. Therefore He
says, " I have conquered," — marking by the per
sonal pronoun the victory as wholly his. "It is,"
says Luther, in his own fervent way, "as if He
wished to say: Write the I with a very large
letter, so as to grasp it in your eyes and heart.
The victory is already there, and all is overcome ;
only be undespairing and hold fast to it. All has
been done ; world, devil, and death are beaten and
lying on the ground; heaven, righteousness, and
life have the victory." 1
Thus we witness the victory; but we are to
share it, else would the call to courage be vain,
or at least would have only the jpower of example.
The example and the call of a victorious leader,
"the Captain of our salvation," would naturally
rouse the spirit of his followers ; but in the pres
ent case there is more than that. " Be of good
cheer; I have overcome the world," is not only
a call, but a promise, — a promise of an associated
presence and communicated power. His servants
believed it, and found it true. " Not I," they
1 Luther, as quoted by Luthardt, iii. 187.

xx THE LAST WORDS 327
said, " but Christ liveth in me." " I can do all,
through the in-strengthening Christ." "I glory
in my infirmities that the power of Christ may
rest upon me." " In all these things we are more
than conquerors through him that loved us." The
last words were spoken in view of the greater trib
ulations which belong to the days of keenest con
flict. But the world is overcome not only on
critical occasions or on some conspicuous arena.
It is the common history of the children of God,
the effect of the life which is generated in them.
" For whatsoever is begotten of God overcometh
the world : and this is the victory that hath over
come the world, even our faith. And who is he
that overcometh the world but he that believeth
that Jesus is the Son of God ? " a In obscure lives
and secret exercises this victory is evermore re
peated, through the same power which the same
faith secures, sometimes in hard-won battles, some
times in serener conquests. It is St. John who
thus interprets his Master's word, and we see what
hold it laid upon his mind. Only four times in
the rest of the New Testament do we meet this
word vik&v, " to conquer or overcome," and
twenty-four times in the writings of St. John.
It pervades the Apocalypse, which is the revela
tion of conflict and victory ; and in the Epistles
1 Gal. ii. 20 ; Phil. iv. 12 ; 2 Cor. xii. 9 ; Rom. viii. 37 ; 1 John
v. 4, 5.

328 THE DISCOURSES chap, xx
to the seven Churches " he that overcometh " is
heir of the successive promises. In the last of
the series these are linked to the word which
here announces the victory of Jesus: "He that
overcometh to him will I give to sit down with
me on my throne, even as I also overcame and
sat with my Father on his throne " (Rev. iii. 11).
The word has been reserved to the last moment.
Jesus spake nothing prematurely. Only when
the end is come does He use the language of one
who overcomes. Then does He conclude his
teaching in the flesh with a final saying, which
might breathe courage and confidence into the
disciples whom He leaves, and into those who in
all generations should believe on Him through
their testimony. So it is provided that the last
word of the last discourse shall sound the note
of victory for ever.
."BE OF GOOD CHEER;
I HAVE OVERCOME THE WORLD."

Part III
THE PRATER

chapter page
I. Its Scope and Order  331
II. For his Work and Glory  340
2 Sections.
III. For the Disciples  359
4 Sections.
IV. For All Believers  . 385
3 Sections.
V. The Sequel  407
329

Part III
THE PRAYER
CHAPTER I
SCOPE AND ORDER
"These things spake Jesus, and lifting up his eyes to heaven,
he said, Father, the hour is come."
So discourse to men has passed into converse
with God.
The disciples stand by in silent and absorbed
attention while the words of this high communion
fall distinctly on their ears. Their minds, exalted
by the great thoughts through which they have been
led, have just found vent in the confession, " Now
we believe that thou earnest forth from God." All
the more intense must have been the feelings with
which they found themselves present at an act of
divine intercourse, such as, it appears, they had
not been privy to before. We read that " Jesus
was alone, praying," that He "went into a moun
tain to pray," that He "continued all night in
prayer to God " ; but his followers were not ad-
331

332 THE PRAYER

mitted to those retirements. Only at some critical
moment, as when the results of the ministry be
came apparent,1 or at the grave of Lazarus,2 or in
the strain of feeling on occasion of the appeal of
the Greeks,3 ejaculations of deep significance had
been heard from his lips. But this is no momen
tary utterance. It is a collected sustained address
to the Father, at the close of the mission upon
earth, presenting the work which has been done,
demanding the glory that should follow, and plead
ing for those who must be left, and for the course
and consummation of their service. The sense of
so great a confidence was a new experience to the
disciples, thus attending their Master into the
secret place of the Most High.
We in a measure share their feelings, and de
sire, likewise, to share them in silence. Students,
expositors, commentators find themselves in a dif
ferent relation to words when they are spoken, not
to men, but to God. Yet, as spoken aloud, they
have a secondary purpose, and assume a char
acter that brings them more within our reach.
"Orat Patrem," says Bengel, "simulque discipulos
docet." He prays the Father and at the same
time teaches the disciples. If so, reflection be
comes a, duty, and the expression of it is made
a right. Yet the treatment of words belonging
to another level of intercourse than that on which
1 Matt. xi. 25, 26. 2 John xi. 41, 42. » xii. 27, 28.

i SCOPE AND ORDER. 333
we stand, must be restricted by a special rever
ence and a greater sense of incompetence. A
commentator seems to hear the warning, "Be not
rash with thy mouth, and let not thine heart be
hasty to utter anything before God: for God is
in heaven, and thou upon earth ; therefore let
thy words be few" (Ecc. v. 2). It is also the
more proper that they should be few, inasmuch
as the Prayer gives final utterance to preceding
thoughts, and its topics therefore are, to a cer
tain extent, the same as those which, in their di
dactic application to men, have been here treated of
already. On these accounts I attend the ascend
ing Prayer with less certainty of verbal interpreta
tion, and with more restricted observations, and
as following at a greater distance, than was the
case in listening to the Discourses.
In passing from the one kind of utterance to
the other, we must make the transition, in the
first place, with a due sense of the relation be
tween the two. We must think of the Prayer,
not as separate from the Discourses, nor as an
appendix to them, but as their proper consum
mation, winding up all that has been spoken and
linking it to the throne of God. The revelations,
instructions, and promises, made to the disciples,
receive the highest possible interpretation and
confirmation when resumed in the converse of
the Son with the Father. They hear then, how

334 THE PRAYER

their own state is regarded, how their own inter
ests are pleaded, and their own prospects are dis
closed in an act of divine communion, which to
that end is made audibly in their presence. In
this sense it is a part of the teaching which they
receive, and an essential part of it, shewing it as
sealed and registered in heaven. The Prayer is to
the Discourses an act and deed of ratification, a
sealing and signing of their teaching before God.
So Calvin has said, " This prayer of Christ was a
sealing of the precious teaching, as well that it
should be ratified in itself, as that it should create
sure faith in his disciples." So also Bengel. " In
this prayer He embraces all that from chapter xiii.
31 He has said, and sets his seal to all things
already done, looking to things past, present, and
future. It is a tacit intimation of the new Pente
cost at hand. Who would not rejoice that these
things which Jesus spake with the Father are
written and remain? In all the Scripture this
chapter is in words most easy, in their meanings
most profound." This " obsignation " of the Dis
courses is justly noted by these authorities as the
effect and purpose of the audible Prayer.
It is indeed from a lofty and serene standpoint
that Jesus here surveys the past and the future,
binding together the ministry, now ended on earth,
with the history which is to follow, and disclosing
in clearer light both the human and the divine in

i SCOPE AND ORDER 335
his own person, and the offices which He fulfils
for us.
First, then, regarding the Prayer as a whole in
this last point of view, we feel how it completes
the impression previously made in regard to the
person of Christ. If there is any light in us, it is
when we are speaking to God that we recognise
our real state and stand in our true position. On
what terms then, and in what tones, does Jesus
on earth converse with the Father in heaven?
This prayer is solitary among all the prayers of
mankind, separated from all others by a perfect
illumination, which is at the same time a perfect
repose. It has no voice of confession, deprecation,
supplication; no echo, however distant, of recog
nition of sin, no tone that is touched with a feel
ing of demerit or defect; only the certain con
sciousness, " I have glorified thee on the earth ; I
have finished the work which thou gavest me to
do." There is no intimation of infirmity or en
treaty for help ; for self only one request, " Glorify
thy Son that thy Son also may glorify thee." So
much may be said on the side of the human history.
But there are deeper tones than those of human
sinlessness. How significant, how eloquent, is the
simplicity of the address ! a single word marking
the true relation, "Father, Holy Father, Right
eous Father ! " 1 Then the ineffable union, which
1 It is an important observation of St. Cyril, quoted by C. a
Lapide. " It is in God a greater thing to be the Father than to be

336 THE PRAYER

this relation implies, is expressed in the assertion
of its eternal pre-existence, before the world was
in the mystery of mutual indwelling, " As thou,
Father, art in me and I in thee," and then in the
We and Us — "That they maybe one as we are;
that they may be one in us " — language in which
no mere human being could speak to God; and
again in the final "j. will," where man could only
say, "I pray." Briefly and reverently we note
these intimations concerning the person of Christ.
The Prayer gives light, also, on his offices.
" Consider," it is said, " the Apostle and High
Priest of our profession, Christ Jesus " (Heb.
iii. 1). We see Him here in both offices. As
Apostle He gives in the account of his mission.
In human embassies, one who has been sent on
a commission reports himself (as the saying is)
when it has been fulfilled. Such is one aspect
of this Prayer. " I have finished the work which
thou gavest me to do " — "I have manifested thy
name unto the men whom thou gavest me " — "I
have given them the words which thou gavest
me " — "I have kept them in thy word." The
apostolic work on earth is done, and that commis
sion has been fulfilled. While the Apostle closes
his embassy, the High Priest begins his office.
Lord : because, as the Father, He begat his consubstantial Son,
but as Lord He made the creatures which are infinitely inferior
to Him."

i SCOPE AND ORDER 337
He who has spoken for God to men now speaks
for men to God. He makes intercession as Head
of his Church; standing, too, in his own con
sciousness on the last step of the altar on which
He is about to offer the sacrifice of Himself ; after
wards to pass through the true tabernacle into the
holiest of all ; there to continue the intercession
which He here begins in what has from old time
been designated as the " High-priestly Prayer."
Thus the two sides of the mediating office — the
apostolate from God to men and the priesthood
for men to God — are revealed in their connexion
with each other, and represented in the hearing of
the little company who will develop into the
future Church.
In passing from these general features of the
Prayer as a whole to the consideration of it in
separate divisions, we find those divisions on the
face of it. "He prays," says Bengel, "1. Concern
ing Himself (v. 1-6) ; 2. Concerning his Apostles
(6-20) ; 3. Concerning future believers (20 to the
end)." The division is of practical service, but
not to be taken as distinguishing different sub
jects. There is one subject throughout; namely,
the mission of Jesus Christ, in the one definite line
of intention and result which bears on the history
of his own. Other purposes outside that line are
not denied, other consequences are not precluded,
but they have no place here. The course of

338 THE PRAYER

thought is consecutive. The mission is seen in
three stages of advance, — in his work in person,
in that by the agents whom He leaves, in the
wider effects to follow, — his own history involving
that of the Apostles, the history of the Apostles,
that of the Church.
There is an evident correspondence, though it
has been scarcely noticed, between these three
successive thoughts in the Prayer and the three
preliminary sayings which prefaced the Discourses
after Judas was gone. The thoughts then thrown
out in abrupt suggestive utterance are now de
liberately expressed in the act of communion with
the Father.
1. "Now," it was said, "is the Son of Man
glorified, and God is glorified in him; and God
shall glorify him in himself, and straightway shall
glorify him " (xiii. 31, 32).
These words, with a certain measure of expan
sion, here pass into prayer.
2. " Little children, yet a little while I am
with you. Ye shall seek me : and, as I said unto
the Jews, Whither I go ye cannot come ; so now
I say to you" (33).
The thoughts attendant on this departure and
separation are here developed into the requests
for those whom He has hitherto kept and now
must leave, which form the second division of the
Prayer.

i SCOPE AND ORDER 339
3. " A new commandment I give unto you,
that ye love one another; even as I have loved
you, that ye also love one another. By this shall
all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have
love one to another " (34, 35).
This, again, is the fundamental desire which
here rises into the final aspirations for the oneness
of his people in love, and their oneness in Himself
and in the Father.
Such a correspondence of the end with the be
ginning exhibits a fixity of idea and continuity of
feeling, and constitutes the whole course of com
munication an orderly development of the mind
of Christ in the hour of the great Farewell.

340 THE PRAYER

CHAPTER II
FOR HIS WORK AND GLORY
Section 1
v. 1-3
" Father, the hour is come : glorify thy Son, that the Son may
glorify thee : even as thou gavest him authority over all
flesh, that whatsoever thou hast given him, to them he
should give eternal life. And this is life eternal, that they
should know thee, the only true God, and him whom thou
didst send, Jesus Christ."
"Father, the hour is come"; the hour, pre
destined and decisive, on which all depends, con
summation of the past and condition of the future.
Yet is it unexplained. This silence is eloquent.
So it is with us, when one speaks to another in
the confidence of a common interest and a perfect
mutual understanding.
All that need be spoken is the prayer which
belongs to the hour : " Glorify thy Son, that the
Son may glorify thee." It is a request funda
mental and comprehensive. As the first word of
the Discourse, " Ye believe in God, believe also in
me," was the ground-thought of all that was to

ii FOR HIS WORK AND GLORY 341
be taught, so is this first word of the Prayer the
ground-thought of all that is to be asked. All
rests on the relation, " Father — thy Son " ; and
this is expressed more pointedly than the English
can give it (not, as usually tov vlov aov, but o-ov
tov vlov). Then, the use of the third person in
the opening words has also its intention. One
who speaks in this abstract form, describing him
self, as it were, ab extra, is basing his requests, not
on personal desire, but on the relation itself, and
on the right or fitness of the case.
" Glorify thy Son." In what does this glorify
ing consist? Many explanations have been offered,
many of them very partial and inadequate, yet
all of them comprehended in this vast and limit
less word. But it is a glorifying for which the
hour is come, and in that respect has been con
sidered already in connexion with the first " pre
liminary saying." There it was spoken as virtually
effected (. vv eSogdo-Ow, see p. 91) because its con
ditions were then accepted and commenced. Here
it is asked for as a thing to be, the results of those
conditions being concentrated in a single word.
Those results include the acceptance of the sacri
fice, the atonement made and redemption achieved,
the reversal of death and overthrow of Satan, and
all the history to follow, — resurrection, ascension,
session at the right hand, the gift of the Holy
Ghost, the mediatorial reign, the coming in the

342 THE PRAYER

kingdom. All are the gifts of the Father, by
which He glorifies the Son. They are desired
for the further end, "that the Son may glorify
thee." For it is the will, the work, the wisdom,
righteousness, and love of the Father, which,
through this divine economy, are to be manifested
in heaven and in earth.
It is an economy for human salvation, and to
the main line of that salvation the thoughts at
present are confined. " According as thou gavest
him authority over all flesh, that whatsoever thou
hast given him, to them he should give eternal
life." In these condensed expressions one work
appears as the central object and final purpose of
the larger powers; as if a vast province were
assigned in order that the City of God might be
formed in the midst of it. We see entire humanity1
made subject to the sovereign administration of
the incarnate Son as head of the race whose nature
He has taken ; and the bestowal of this authority
is elsewhere spoken of as the reversal of a great
usurpation, that of "the Ruler of this world." To
men as such, great results must follow from this
universal relation to the incarnate Son ; but these
are not the subject here.
1 The phrase is the rendering of the Hebrew phrase, 1_D TO,
which describes mankind in their weakness and transitoriness
as contrasted with the majesty of God ; and from that side of
their nature in which they are akin to and represent the lower
world (numerous references appended). — Westcott's note
in loc.

n FOR HIS WORK AND GLORY 343
Within this giving of authority, and as the
highest consequence of it, there is a further giving
by the Father; one, not merely into right and
rule, but into appropriation and possession. That
which is thus given is expressed (not as may
appear in the English in the personal and the
plural, but) in the neuter and the singular, " all
that which thou hast given him " (irdv o _e_<~«:a.
avT(f). This peculiar wording had been used at
another time,1 for expression of the same divine
act ; and in both places it has the effect of repre
senting this giving by the Father to the Son, as
not distributive but collective (to use the logical
terms) ; one in which men are regarded, not in
their separate individuality, but in some common
aspect, corresponding to that collective character
in which they are seen at last, and to which (again
using the neuter and the singular) the Prayer
returns (v. 23, 24, Xva Sxrtv ev o SeSco/ea? fioi).
So is it spoken concerning the giving of men by
the Father to the Son ; but in the third act of
giving, namely, that of eternal life by the Son to
men, this collective language disappears, being
resolved into the plural and the personal, " That
to them (a.TO{.) he should give eternal life." It
is impossible to overlook this discriminating pre
cision of language, corrective of some tendencies
1 See vi. 27 : irav o SiSwcn. pot. 6 Harf)p irpis {pi i)£«, All that
which the Father hath given me shall come to me.

344 THE PRAYER

of thought, suggestive, also, of others ; but touch
ing on mysteries in regard to which exposition,
once prompt and eager, is now more diffident and
reserved. Whatever indefiniteness is cast over the previous
act of God, none rests upon the ultimate act of
Christ. It is shewn (1) as the crowning preroga
tive of his larger sovereignty, (2) as made to
individual men, and (3) as consisting in eternal
life. This had ever been the great announcement.
" I am come that they might have life." " I give
unto them eternal life " (x. 27) ; and so again and
again throughout the ministry. This is the gift
celebrated afterwards in frequent repetitions of
joy and praise. " The gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. vi. 23).
" This is the record, that God has given us eternal
life, and this life is in his Son " (1 John v. 11).
Life it is, as distinguished from mere existence ;
life in its fullest sense of consciousness and affec
tions, capacities, and activities ; eternal (attovto?),
as belonging not to this age and world, but to the
age of ages, and another world than this.
Yet in this world it is given ; and in the pres
ent state it must begin ; for that is involved in the
words which follow, " And this is the eternal life,
that they may know thee, the only true God, and
him whom thou didst send — Jesus Christ."
This is a fundamental word indeed ; a summary

ii FOR HIS WORK AND GLORY 345
and certificate of Christianity. But the expression
is peculiar and beyond expectation ; and is felt to
be so great a difficulty as to oblige us to advert to
the question as to its real source. Are these the
words of Him who prays, or of him who reports the
prayer ?
It has not been within the present purpose to
notice the conclusions of critics who consider them
selves at liberty to refer all expressions in these
records to the one source or the other, as suits their
own views. Such critics naturally think, not only
that these words are those of the writer, whoever
he was, but also that in this instance he has failed
in the usual artistic success of his representation.
" He has been guilty of an inadvertence." " He
has made a slip," and " has offended against his
torical propriety." But the difficulty seems also
very serious to some of our own commentators,
who deal with these Scriptures in a very different
spirit. It is strange to them that the Lord should
thus speak of Himself, and especially that He
should use the compound name of Jesus Christ,
"which afterwards came into use." It is plain,
however, that this name cannot be excepted from
the whole verse, on account of the balance and cor
respondence of the two clauses.
Says Bishop Westcott,
" We have to consider whether the definitions are to be
treated as literally parts of the prayer, or as words used by

346 THE PRAYER

the Evangelist in his record of the prayer, as best fitted, in
this connexion, to convey the full meaning of the original
language." He thinks that
"the use of the name at this time by the Lord Himself, is in
the highest degree unlikely, while the compound title, express
ing, as it does, the two ideas of true humanity and divine
office, may reasonably be supposed to give the exact sense of
the Lord's thought. . . . The clauses, while perfectly nat
ural as explanations, are most strange if they are taken as
substantial parts of the prayer. It is no derogation from the
truthfulness of the record that St. John has thus given, par
enthetically and in conventional language (so to speak), the
substance of what the Lord said, probably at greater length "
(Note on v. 3).
In like manner, Dr. Plummer, regarding in the
same light the use of the name " which afterwards
came into use," concludes that " the wording here
is the Evangelist's, perhaps abbreviated from the
actual words." Other commentators have written
in the same sense.
1. On the other hand, it is obvious to remark
that the words, being as directly addressed to God,
as all the other words are, do not at all lend them
selves to a supposition of being an explanation in
parenthetical and conventional language.
2. The argument, from a thing being unlikely
and strange, consists in a comparison with what we
should expect, and must be weighed against an ar
gument of like kind on the other side. " It is in the

n FOR HIS WORK AND GLORY 347
highest degree unlikely " that St. John, purporting
to give the Lord's words, at a final and solemn mo
ment addressed to his Father in presence of his
disciples, should diverge from that method by alter
ing expressions fundamental to Christian faith, and
presenting them in a form of his own, accordant
with his later habit of thought. To most minds
the latter unlikelihood will surely seem much
greater than the former.
3. In regard to the strangeness of the expres
sion in relation to our Lord's usual language, it is
certain that, if it seem strange to us, it must have
been still more so to St. John, from whom we de
rive our knowledge of the Lord's manner of speech,
and who knew, in his own- experience, when the
compound title came into use.
4. But the argument from unlikeliness and
strangeness loses most of its value, when the oc
casion is seen to be altogether exceptional: for
then an act or word, not found elsewhere, may be
seen as simply natural to the situation. I adopt
the words of Stier (vi. 441) : —
" This is indeed the only time that the Lord Himself
unites thus simply and immediately the two names, that of
his person and that of his office — but the occasion stands
alone. He presents Himself in the presence of his listening
disciples, before the Father in the most sublime self-testi
mony; uttering that designation of Himself, which was
thereby sanctified, instituted, and ordained for all future tes
timony to his person. We may say that the apostolical eus-

348 THE PRAYER

tom of using Jesus Christ as one double appellative, making
Xpioros also a proper name, had its origin in this word of
our Lord. Speak of Him as He spoke of Himself before
God — this was the Spirit's suggestion to their minds."
5. It accords with this last idea that " the later
custom," here anticipated, does, in fact, date from
the first moment that the Gospel was preached ; and
that the Apostles, as soon as they opened their lips,
used the compound name as the sum of their tes
timony and their watchword to the world. " Be
baptized," they said, "everyone of you, in the
name of Jesus Christ, for the remission of your
sins" (Act ii. 48). "In the name of Jesus Christ
of Nazareth, rise up and walk " (iii. 6 and iii. 20,
iv. 10, etc.). We have no question to ask about
this immediate and commanding use of the adopted
name, if they had heard it from the Lord's own lips
as that under which it was his will to be testified
and known.
I now turn from this question (and with an en
tirely satisfied mind concerning it) to contemplate
for a moment this strong foundation word of our
faith. It is as if one came suddenly in front of
some great monument, bearing, in letters carved
by him whom it commemorates, the original in
scription to which all after history must refer.
It contains a creed distinct and comprehensive ;
but it is much more than a creed. It speaks of a
knowledge, and a knowledge which is life eternal.

ii FOR HIS WORK AND GLORY 349
The word for "know" represents a knowledge
learned or acquired, and the tense implies that it
is both present and progressive. Plainly this
knowledge, which is life, is not merely one of in
formation or assent, nor one of man's intellect
only, but of " all that is within him." It is a
knowledge of persons, not merely of truths con
cerning them; and even in common speech, to
know a person, as distinguished from knowing
things about him, implies some intercourse and
contact of minds. Above all, must this be so in
knowing God, which indeed cannot be without an
inward union and assimilation ; as Irenaeus puts it,
" The possession of life arises from the sharing in
God; and sharing in God is knowing God, and
partaking in his goodness." 1
The knowing here is twofold, and corresponds
with the twofold believing enjoined in the first
word of discourse, " Believe in God ; believe also
in me."
God is to be known as the true God (dXv0tv6<s) ;
true "in the absolutely real meaning of that in
comprehensible name " (Stier), and as the only
true God, else not God at all, intimating a con
sciousness of the polytheistic dreams, the sem
blances, and imaginings (e'lSmXa) of men. It is
the creed of the old covenant, continued and
exalted. " Hear, O Israel ; the Lord our God is
1 Cited by Luthardt, v. iii. p. 194.

350 THE PRAYER

one Lord." All Israel held the creed, but all Israel
did not know God. " Ye say that he is your God,
yet ye have not known him " (viii. 55): and it is
the knowing which is life eternal.
For the creed and life of the new testament
there is the distinctive addition, " And him whom
thou has sent — Jesus Christ." It is more than
an addition, — being the appointed means to the
knowledge of God, and a vast enlargement of it.
That lies in the words "whom thou hast sent."
He was sent " to bring us to God," that those who
would not have known God might come to know
Him, and that those who would have known Him
faintly might know Him fully. It is the mission
of the Son from the Father which makes the know
ledge of Him who is sent one with the knowledge
of Him that sent Him. The divine formula, thus
given to the Church, has been ever answered by an
unchanging confession — as we answer still in
the two first sentences of the Apostles' Creed.
"Though there be," says St. Paul, "that are called
gods, whether in heaven or on earth ; as there are
gods many, and lords many ; yet to us there is one
God, the Father, of whom are all things ; and we
unto him, and one Lord, Jesus Christ, through
whom are all things and we through him " (1 Cor.
viii. 5, 6). In every connexion of thought and in
every variety of expression, the apostolic writers
weave into one fabric, like warp and woof, "the

n FOR HIS WORK AND GLORY 351
knowledge of God and of Jesus our Lord." And
in words, which are probably the last written in
the New Testament, our Evangelist winds up their
common witness and experience : " We know that
the Son of God is come, and hath given us an un
derstanding, that we know him that is true, and
we are in him that is true, even in his Son Jesus
Christ. This is the true God and eternal life"
(1 John v. 29).
Men who do not accept the Gospel of Christ,
or who go about to construct a gospel of their
own, are ever seeking to put asunder what God
has joined together; but they cannot know the
Father without knowing the Son, or the true God
apart from Him whom He has sent to reveal Him,
or have the eternal life while separate from Him
who is anointed of God to be to us its author and
giver. "O Almighty God, whom truly to know is everlasting
life, grant us perfectly to know thy Son Jesus Christ, to be
the way, the truth, and the life ; that, following the steps of
thy holy Apostles, we may steadfastly walk in the way which
leadeth to eternal life ; through the same thy Son Jesus
Christ our Lord. Amen."

352 THE PRAYER

Section 2
v. 4, 5
The words "whom thou didst send" lead on
to those which follow. That mission reaches its
end; its last moments are come. The account of
it is to be given in, and its reward to be attained.
A single sentence serves for each.
" I glorified thee on the earth, having finished the work
which thou gavest me to do.
"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own
self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world
was " (4).
Here the form of expression changes. Before,
it was "thy Son"; now, it is "I." The third
person had been suitable in the review of a great
scheme of things ; one comprising a universal
authority conferred, a definite purpose within it,
and a transcendent gift bestowed. The transition
from agency in this scheme of things to personal
action and desire is marked by the direct use of
the first person, which continues through the rest
of the Prayer.
Brief is the account of the fulfilment of the
mission. The adoption of the participial reading
(TeXett-o-a? instead of .TeXetWa) has shaped two
sentences into one. But it is not more brief than

n FOR HIS WORK AND GLORY 353
full. How could it be more full than it is with
glory given and work completed ?
" I glorified thee on the earth," — on the earth,
as for me a place of sojourning and an adopted
field of action, — on the earth, as a scene where
that glory was withheld, a province in the universe
of God, where a revolted race had done dishonour
to his name. " Glory to God in the highest "
sounded from heaven when Jesus was born into
the world ; and now that He will leave it, glory
has been rendered upon earth. It has been ren
dered by the perfect devotion of a holy human life,
by word and deed, by character and by service. It
has been rendered by accomplishment of the work
which was given to be done. Many works are
finished, by coming to an end, though partial and
imperfect. Not so this. The word employed
means, not merely ended, but achieved and per
fected. This accomplishment is spoken of in the
historic tense ; for it now lies in the past, and the
act of consummation is reached. But perhaps we
may observe that from the work on the earth (iirl
Trjs yi)<;) the final act is distinguished, as a being
" lifted up out of the earth " (e/c t»)_ yrj<s), and so
part of the process of departure.
The account of life on earth, here given at the
end of it, is the same which, in the course of it,
was often testified in words, as well as always
illustrated by facts. " My meat is to do the will

354 THE PRAYER

of him that sent me, and to accomplish his work "
(iv. 34). " He that speaketh from himself seeketh
his own glory; but he that seeketh the glory of
him that sent him, the same is true" (vii. 18).
Such words were frequent, and they set forth the
aim and business of human life. It is true that
the instance is solitary and unapproached. The
glory given to God was such in measure as He
only could render ; the work assigned Him to do
was his alone. To Him it belonged to offer a per
fect life, to declare his Father's name, to save the
lost, and found the Church. But He so speaks
as to make this life and work of his the great
example of the common duty; and his servants,
desiring to "walk in this world as he walked,"
have recognised the standard set them, and have
seen that the true ambition for man is to glorify
God on the earth, and accomplish the work which
He gives them to do. In proportion as this is
done, even in the most narrow scene of action and
the most obscure employment, there is the true
success in life, and the career that has no failure.
Great is the satisfaction and rest of mind attend
ant on the thought of " the work which thou hast
given me to do." It gives a principle of easy
application, and corrects vain wanderings of imag
ination, and ennobles the work we do. We fancy
we should be happier if left to choose and offer
what we pleased. But if we take our work as

ii FOR HIS WORK AND GLORY 355
given us to do, and if we do it to the Lord, then
it takes rank with the service of Christ Himself.
Many a follower of Jesus in undesired position
and unwelcome duty has glorified God upon the
earth after that great example, by contented
acceptance of the Father's will, and a loyal and
loving fulfilment of it. So we take up for our
own use the words in which the Lord has compre
hended the history of his own earthly life.
Of these words we can speak without misgiving,
for they are within the sphere of our own experi
ence, that of human life on earth. But who can
treat of those which follow, in which the conse
quences of the mission to men are claimed in the
world of glory, and the human consciousness
breaks into the divine?
"And now, O Father, glorify thou me with thine own
self, with the glory which I had with thee before the world
was" (5).
Thus, in serene tones of a perfect knowledge,
does Jesus, while in the flesh and on the earth,
reveal the divine consciousness which He bears
within Him. We stand by with the amazed dis
ciples, and note the three stages of ascent which
in succession carry on the mind into regions of
thought in which thought itself is lost. In " Glo
rify thou me," we hear of the bestowal of some
exalted honours, and investiture with unexplained

356 THE PRAYER

majesty. The next word, " With thine own self,"
raises these conceptions to an incalculable eleva
tion above all lower levels in heavenly places into
fellowship with the Father and the bosom of God.
The last word, " With the glory which I had with
thee before the world was," throws back the pos
session of this glory and fellowship not only into
a pre-existent state, but into an absolutely limitless
eternity. In presence of such words, addressed by
the Son to the Father, there is a call, not so much
to study and exposition as to adoration and faith.
Yet even here we might diverge into contro
versy, did we feel any just reason to do so ; for
however firmly the lines of truth are drawn, the
ingenuity of heresy will seek some outlet of
escape.1 But Arian endeavours to make these
and other like sayings comport with the bounded
existence of a created being, and, still more,
Socinian attempts to interpret them of a purely
ideal existence in the predetermination of God,
are so desperate on the face of them, that they
demand no notice here. They are amply dealt
with in the many works which argue the question
of the divinity of our Lord and Saviour.
We hear Him speaking in full consciousness of
being the same before the world was and now, and
1 " Clarus et disertus textus de divinitate Christi contra
Arianos, quanquam et hie foramen seu rimam invenerint qua
elaberentur." — Luther, in loc.

ii FOR HIS WORK AND GLORY 367
of a glory which He had as his own in the eternal
fellowship with God. It is asked for now from
the human standpoint, with its voluntary emptying
and humbling of self, the time for which now
comes to its end, and which is to be succeeded by
that glory of essential Godhead refulgent in his
person as Mediator, and investing with its com
municated perfections the manhood which He has
taken into God.1
Who can tell what were the impressions on the
minds of the disciples, while they listened to this
voice of sublime self -revelation ! But we know
that the truths, received throughout this evening
with poor intelligence, sunk and settled and
wrought in their hearts, under the teaching of the
Holy Ghost, who took these things of Christ, and
shewed them to them; and how, through their
testimony, these truths became the common faith
of the Christian society, as is shewn by the manner
in which they are not only distinctly taught, but
presupposed and appealed to, in the canonical
Epistles. So the consciousness of Jesus concern-
1 Luthardt' s comments are brief and to the point. "He
desires again the glory which He had ; only He desires it now
as incarnate man. He says, ' I had,' not, ' I received ' " (Ben
gel). 'Before the world was': it is thus unconditioned by
anything except God, and so stands outside of time. By this
phrase, the age of time is sharply separated from the eternity
that lies at its foundation. ' With thee,' He says, because He
was the Son personally distinguished from the Father, as Beds
trpds tov Be&v, God with God" (VIII. p. 199).

858 THE PRAYER

ing Himself became the consciousness of the
Church concerning Him ; x and its voice sounds
on from age to age in unchanging confession and
exalted praise.
1 On these two subjects, see Liddon's Bampton Lectures,
Lecture IV., "Our Lord's Divinity as witnessed by his Con
sciousness,", and VI., "Our Lord's Divinity as taught by St.
James, St. Peter, and St. Paul."

FOR THE DISCIPLES

CHAPTER III
FOR THE DISCIPLES
Section 1
v. 6-10
In few words has Jesus spoken of Himself, in
respect of the divine economy which He admin
isters, of his action in it, and his translation into
glory. To this history that of the disciples is
attached. They have their own special part under
that economy, as being the first believers, and the
chosen agents through whom the knowledge and
the power of it are to be conveyed to mankind.
Therefore, in the words already spoken, has been
laid the ground of intercession for them. That
intercession is the main purpose of the prayer, and
the main reason why they should hear it. It is
made for them personally, with the most tender
concern for the needs of their situation, but, at the
same time, for them officially and representatively
in view of their future work and its final conse
quences. The brief sentences of prayer for Self
now pass into more effusive language in prayer for

360 THE PRAYER

them. If in awestruck wonder they had listened
to those former words, it would be with another
kind of interest that they would hear their own
position recognised and their own cause pleaded
with God. It is in the recognition of their actual
relations to his Word, to Himself, and to his Father,
that the Lord gives the reasons for the fitness of
his requests in their behalf.
" I manifested thy name unto the men whom thou gavest
me out of the world : thine they were, and thou gavest them
to me ; and they have kept thy word.
"Now they know that all things whatsoever thou hast
given me are from thee : for the words which thou gavest me
I have given unto them ; and they received them, and knew
of a truth that I came forth from thee, and they believed that
thou didst send me. I pray for them : I pray not for the
world, but for those whom thou hast given me ; for they are
thine : and all things that are mine are thine, and thine are
mine : and I am glorified in them " (6-10) .
Is the little company there present and thus ap
proved all the actual fruit which has been gath
ered in that work upon the earth which has now
reached its end ? No ! not all ; yet the best and
representative part of it. It seems a dispropor
tionate result ; yet will it serve its purpose in the
future, as the gathering converts and the rising
Church and the Christian centuries will shew.
These few men are to be left ; and now they may
be left, for their minds are possessed with ideas

m FOR THE DISCIPLES 361
rooted and living within them. How great is
the capacity of ideas for expansion, propagation,
perpetuation ! Above all, when those ideas are
thoughts of God, communicated by the Word in
carnate, in fulfilment of his mission from the
Father, to men elected to receive them.
They are, He says, " the men whom thou gavest
me out of the world," the alienated, unreceptive
world : " Thine they were, and to me thou gavest
them." " Thine," we understand, not as all men
are thine, nor as all Israel are thine, but by a per
sonal and distinguishing relation, one not only con
sidered as foreknown, but asserted as actual. It is
the relation of which it is written, " The Lord hath
set apart him that is godly for himself." It is the
relation of "Israelites indeed," as (in regard to
one of them) the Lord expressed it. Of these He
now says, " To me thou gavest them," as being not
merely assigned to Him in the divine intention,
but delivered into his teaching and care by that in
ward operation of God, concerning which He said,
" No man can come to me except the Father, which
sent me, draw him " (vi. 44). It does not appear
that the Lord Jesus, in the flesh, wrought on men's
hearts by that secret operation which we call effec
tual grace. Such action is ascribed by Him not to
Himself, but to the Father. We may say that from
Him in those days, there passed into the souls of
men the power not of the Spirit, but of the Word.

362 THE PRAYER

What He did for them He explains, "I mani
fested thy name to the men which thou gavest
me" — "I have given to them the words which
thou gavest me." The " name " intends whatso
ever may be expressed or known of God. So the
phrase is used throughout the course of revelation ;
from the day when Israel, receiving the first mes
sage from God, asked, in conscious ignorance,
" What is his name ? " The answer, advancing
through the intervening ages, came with a new
fulness and clearness in the Word of Christ. " No
man hath seen God at any time ; the only-begotten
Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, he hath
declared him " (i. 18). This revelation of God in
his fatherhood and love, his mind and will, had
constituted the " word " which the disciples are said
to have "kept." But there had been more than
this. The Word, as a whole, in its general scope
(Xo'yo?), has been made definite by "words"
(prjfiaTa), various and distinct communications.
Often in the Greek are these terms distinguished
from each other, but seldom can they be so in the
English. The Revised Version in some places
renders the second by " sayings," but cannot fitly
do so in an announcement so weighty as this,
" The words which thou gavest me I have given
them." It is a statement fundamental to the
faith. We see Jesus standing between God and
man, as Mediator of the truth, in the spirit re-

iii FOR THE DISCIPLES 363
ceiving the words from God, which in the flesh
He delivers to men. As afterwards, in apocalyptic
vision, it was "the revelation of Jesus Christ,
which God gave unto him, to shew unto his ser
vants," so it was with the human words on earth,
only they are given in another tone and for a
different end. It was a course of divine instruc
tion, spoken and acted, under which, during the
past years, these disciples had lived.
For them it has not been vain. The result is
recognised and affirmed. Of the manifestation of
the name it is said, " They have kept thy word."
If others let it pass, they understood and retained
it. " They on the good ground are they which in
an honest and good heart, having heard the word,
keep it." Of " the words which thou gavest me,
and which I have given them," it is said that
" they received them " ; and the consequences of
that reception are defined, " Now they know that
all things whatsoever thou hast given me are from
thee " ; and what they knew of the things, they
knew of the Person ; " they knew of a truth that
I came forth from thee; and they believed that
thou didst send me." The close of the Discourse
had given the same result, in the last testimony
of Jesus and in the responsive confession of the
disciples, — " Now we believe that thou earnest
forth from God." There had been cause to ques
tion the practical power of that faith, but not the

364 THE PRAYER

reality of it. That had been recognised, and is
now affirmed, by Him who knew their hearts.
He shews the truth of the case, and the limit of it ;
so far they have gone, if no further. And this at
tainment is decisive. Once possessed with a settled
conviction of their Lord's mission from the Father,
and of an immediate derivation from God in all his
words and works, they have reached a level of faith,
which is raised above the perplexities, vacillations,
and perils of an earlier stage, and which gives firm
vantage-ground for the advance which has yet to be
made. Henceforth by the natural process of reflec
tion, aided by the promised illumination of the
Spirit, they will come to apprehend the true nature
and work of Christ and all the consequences in
human salvation. But that will only be the un
folding of what is now implicitly possessed. The
premises are fixed in their minds ; the conclusions
will follow. Often, indeed, does a like turning-
point occur in men's mental histories, when they
have reached a certain fixed assurance, to be
developed afterwards by logical deductions, and
under spiritual experience, into a larger and fuller
faith. The disciples, then, have risen to a level on
which they may be left ; yet not as if their future
was secured without need of divine succour or
defence. Such need is created by the life of faith
on which they have entered. Therefore, says the

in FOR THE DISCIPLES 365
Lord, I pray for them (iycb irepl avT&v epa>Ta>). I
— the pronoun is emphatic — make request con
cerning them. " I pray not for the world, but for
them whom thou hast given me." The words are
solemn, and separate two spiritual regions. How
sad to be on the excluded side of this dividing
line ! Yet they should not be taken as meaning
more than they say; not as a hard denial of all
concern for the world, or as negativing any kind
of application for it. The requests now made are
inapplicable to its state ; they belong only to
believers. Yet these are messengers to the world ;
and prayer for them is also obliquely prayer for
it, as is in fact expressed afterwards in the words,
" that the world may believe that thou hast sent
me " (21). But those for whom intercession is
now made have not only their own needs, but their
own claims as objects of peculiar interest to Christ
and to God. They are "those whom thou hast
given me ; for they are thine." It was said before,
"they were thine, and thou gavest them me"; now
it is said, " they are thine " ; and all the more so,
as having been given to me, for " all things that
are mine are thine, and thine are mine ; and I am
glorified in them." Already, in the Discourse,
like words have been spoken. This repetition
shews that this ineffable consciousness is habitual
to the mind of Him who speaks. It would have
been plea sufficient for the present purpose to

THE PRAYER

have urged that the souls which have become mine
claim divine affection because whatever is mine is
thine ; but it is a really incalculable advance to
reverse the thought, and say, "And all things
that are thine are mine." Luther observes, "Any
one might justly say to God, ' All that is mine is
thine ' ; but no created being could go on to say,
' And all that is thine is mine.' This is a word
for Christ alone." It is a universal transcendental
saying, yet connected here with a special applica
tion. There is a discrimination between "thy
things " and " my things," though they are also
united in the common lordship and ownership.
If, therefore, we read the words " my things " as
¦intending, in the way of distinction, whatever is
historically given and appropriated to Christ, then
we may understand by "thy things" that which
is in true relation to God, but has not been so
brought within the Christian economy: such, for
example, as things before Christ, or outside the
Church. If this be so, we have, in the words " All
thine are mine," a large extension of the relation
to Christ personally, by adoption into his media
torial kingdom, of much on which his name has
not been named, and lying beyond the boundary
line of historical Christianity. The thought is
welcome, as enlarging the sense of kindred in
Christ, but on such words any comment must be
offered in godly fear. As for the words which

iii FOR THE DISCIPLES 367
follow, "And I am glorified in them," these are
usually, and perhaps rightly, taken as reverting
to the case of the disciples, in whom some of
the glory of his manifestation has been reflected.
The intervening words then become parenthetic.
But the passage may be read continuously, " All
thy things are mine, and I am glorified in them."
There is nothing that is God's which does not
contribute glory to Him, in whom, as true Head
of mankind, all right desire is accepted, and all
initial goodness perfected. The passage, I think,
may be read in either way. If in the first, it adds
a further plea for the disciples in that their Lord
is glorified in them: if in the second, it extends
that glorification over a wider circle of human
life and various conditions of knowledge.
Section 2
v. 11-19
The disciples have been commended to God,
and the grounds of commendation have been
given. The need for it and the aim of it follow.
" And I am no more in the world, and these are in the
world, and I come to thee. Holy Father, keep them in thy
name which thou hast given me, that they may be one, even
as we are. While I was with them, I kept them in thy name
which thou hast given me : and I guarded them, and not one
of them perished, but the son of perdition ; that the Scrip-

368 THE PRAYER

ture might be fulfilled. But now T come to thee : and these
things I speak in the world, that they may have my joy ful
filled in themselves.. I have given them thy word ; and the
world hated them, because they are not of the world, even as
I am not of the world. I pray not that thou shouldest take
them out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep them
from the evil one. They are not of the world, even as I am
not of the world. Sanctify them in the truth : thy word is
truth. As thou didst send me into the world, even so sent I
them into the world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself,
that they also might be sanctified through the truth " (11-
19). This intercession for the disciples (1) discloses
the sense of the situation, (2) urges the requests
which it inspires.
1. The situation for the disciples is seen as a
subject for grave solicitude. They are in the
world ; indeed, are sent into it. They will be left
in it without the guardian care which they have
had; and they are still weak and dependent.
Doubtless, as they heard the words, they deeply
felt their truth. Soon they will feel it more, and
derive continual comfort from this prevailing in
tercession, and from the experience which will be
the answer to it.
Significant, and touching in their significance,
are the words, " I am no more in the world, and
these are in the world, and I come to thee." Jesus
(after the crisis is over) will have done with the
world, passing from the painful experiences of its

iii FOR THE DISCIPLES 369
evil state and active enmity into the presence
where these can be felt no longer. All the more
does He speak as one would •do, who, delivered
from trying circumstances himself, must leave
those whom he loves to bear them. It is a short
saying, "These are in the world," but it has a
tone of compassionate meaning. It is not for
them a place where they can be at home, for " they
are not of the world " ; nor where they can be at
peace, for " the world hated them," and will make
its hatred felt ; but, what is worse, it is a place of
damage and danger in respect of their life towards
God. Its adverse powers, its subtle influences of
evil, its infected atmosphere, have been felt by
Him who speaks with the keen sensibility which
belongs to perfect holiness. These weak souls,
with the natural predispositions of sin, have needed
succours and safeguards. These they have had
in the companionship of their Lord through the
time of which He says, "While I was with them";
but that time is over, and its defences will be no
more. " While I was with them, I kept them in thy name which
thou hast given me : and I guarded them, and not one of
them perished, but the son of perdition ; that the Scripture
might be fulfilled. But now I come to thee."
There is light here on the dispensation which
has hitherto subsisted for these disciples, and light
on the Lord's action under it. The particular

370 THE PRAYER

assistances which cease with his departure are
plainly those not of supernatural grace, but of
natural intercourse. These powers, not those,
were exercised by Jesus in his life on earth. That
was the dispensation then. Of his action under
it, He speaks here in words which reflect a grave
and tender light upon the past. " I kept them in
the name which thou gavest me — I guarded them
— not one of them is lost" (with the foreseen
exception). In the Gospel narratives the educa
tion of the Apostles is interwoven with the mani
festation to the world, and it is a substantive
part of the story. It was education by a Teacher
ever in touch with their feelings and alive to their
dangers. We see it in some warm encouragement
or sharp rebuke to Peter ; in some admonition to
James and John, when they " knew not what they
asked," or " knew not what manner of spirit they
were of " ; in reproofs of unbelief, or confirmations
of faith ; in correction of false expectations, of
worldly estimates, or of selfish emulations; and
also in the providence which ordered their pro
gress, and kept them from premature exposures.
Of the last considerate care, an instance occurs in
the next chapter, which is taken as an illustration
of these very words (xviii. 8, 9). Yet are these
but occasional expressions of the daily watchful
ness which is here disclosed. " I kept them (eya>
eTrjpovv avToii';) in the name which thou gavest

iii FOR THE DISCIPLES 371
me" — in the faith and life which it creates. "I
guarded them (e<pvXa^a) as against crafts and
assaults of the enemy in their moments of weak
ness and liabilities to error. And it has not been
vain ; up to this hour they are preserved in a true
faith in the holy name. One only is lost, and by
his own will and deed. He too was taught, cor
rected, warned, as others were ; but it was vain
for him, who was "the son of perdition." "Not
one perished (dirwXeTo), but the son of perishing "
(a7r oiXeta?) ; the well-known Hebrew expression
intimating that which is the result of a man's
personal nature and moral state, rather than that
to which he is destined or sentenced. It was
strange that such a man should be " one of the
twelve," but it had been foreshewn, as Jesus had
already intimated (xiii. 18), applying to Himself'
the words of the Psalmist (Ps. xii. 9) ; and that
Scripture had to be fulfilled, first in its character
of prediction concerning the pre-ordained circum
stances of the Passion ; and also in its character
of warning, as to alien elements to be found in
sacred companies, and unhappy histories in the
very homes of salvation.
These, then, are the reasons for intercession, —
the disciples left in the world, and sent into it;
their former safeguard gone, and their Master
taken from their head. We see not only why the
intercession is made, but why they are permitted

372 THE PRAYER

to hear it. Nothing else could have so assured
them that their Lord, in resigning his external
guardianship, secured for them unseen protection,
and that the care over them is not withdrawn
because its method is changed. They learn that
it is now to be given from above, and to be sought
by prayer ; and the prayer which they hear is an
instructive example to them, as well as a prevailing
intercession for them.
The prayer begins with an unusual address.
For Himself it is always " Father " ; for the disci
ples it is "Holy Father," as opening a request
that they may be made and kept holy. For such
desires it lays again the old foundation, " Be ye
holy, for I am holy." The petition is threefold :
1. Keep them in thy name which thou hast given
me. 2. Keep them from the evil. 3. Sanctify
them in thy truth. We learn the true order of
things : first, there is the position of believers ;
then, preservation from attacks upon it; then,
development in holiness.
It is " keeping " grace which is asked for ; and
that applies to those who are already in the true
position. This position is twice described as being
" in the name which thou hast given me." It is a
closely condensed expression, and one that has no
exact parallel to assist explanation, so that great
difficulty has been felt concerning it. Yet one
may venture to say that if " thy name " expresses

iii FOR THE DISCIPLES 373
the knowledge of God as discovered in his relations
with man, then was it "given" to Christ in the
same sense in which the Word and the works are
ever said to be given; that is, communicated to
Him in his human mediatorship, in order that He
should communicate it to men. But perhaps we
may go farther in interpreting this gift of the
" name," and say that the relations of God to man
which it expresses were delivered to Christ not
only to reveal, but to realise and effectuate. For
instance, the original " proclaiming of the name of
the Lord" (Ex. xxxiii. 19, and xxxiv. 6, 7) was
" The Lord, the Lord God, merciful and gracious,
long suffering, and abundant in goodness and
truth ; keeping mercy for thousands , forgiving
iniquity, transgression, and sin." To Christ it was
given not only to declare this name, but to justify
it, by the atonement which made way for the
operation of these attributes of grace and mercy
and forgiveness. If " God is love," that name was
manifested in his Son, and is known for ever as
"the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our
Lord." In that and in other respects, the name
was given Him to be both realised and revealed in
his person.1
1 It will be observed that in the sentence commented on
there is an important diSerence from the wording with whifth
we are familiar. The reading followed in the Authorised Ver
sion is otis, '¦'¦whom thou hast given me" ; that in the Revised
Version is <jS, " which thou hast given me " ; the one referring

374 THE PRAYER

The Prayer is that the disciples may be kept
in this name, by preservation in the faith which
holds to it and the life which responds to it ; and
this will be, for them, a progressive faith and life,
as is said afterwards, " I have declared unto them
thy name and will declare it " (26). Furthermore,
this name, being the same in all, will become not
only an individual but a "common salvation." It
will constitute an essential unity in the same con
scious relations with God, found in the same Lord
and vitalised by the same Spirit, so as to reflect the
very mystery of the Godhead. This is a far deeper
unity than that of mere likemindedness (6/i6voia),
as Grotius and others of his school have interpreted,
an interpretation which falls short of the meaning
of the august comparison, " That they may be one
as we are." If the comparison is lofty, the lan
guage in which it is couched is more so. " As we
are," Kada> ? r)fj,eh — What man, angel, or archangel
could thus speak of the Eternal?
to men, the other to the name. The evidence for the latter is
decisive. The peculiarity of the expression probably suggested
the change of reading as the true one. Some commentators,
who could accept the former reading, have felt so much the
singularity of the expression, ' ' thy name which thou hast given, ' '
and the difficulty of interpreting it, that they have resorted to
the supposition that $ is a change from 3, referring not to the
name, but to the disciples, as in the phrase, irav o 8e8aicds —
being in explanatory apposition with airrovs. (So Bengel, Stier,
Godet.) They produce an awkward construction, without real
authority for it. I cannot feel the difficulty as seriously as they
do. To me the phrase seems not unnatural.

in FOR THE DISCIPLES 375
The Prayer proceeds from that in which the dis
ciples are to be kept, to that from which they are
to be kept ; but it proceeds freely, as thought suc
ceeds thought, not formally, as we might arrange
it. The petition, " Keep them in thy name," has
recalled the way in which they have hitherto been
kept ; and that has involved the inevitable mention
of the one exception; after which the line of thought
is resumed, but diversified with tones of love and
sympathy. "But now I come to thee; and these things I
speak in the world, that they may have my joy ful
filled in themselves." The last words occurred in
the discourse (xv. 11), and their recurrence here
shews how near the desire was to the Lord's heart.
It is joy which He intends for them, — his own joy
fulfilled in themselves. But there is so much that
goes against it, in his departure and in the enmity
of the world. Therefore does He speak these
Words in their hearing, before departure and in the
world, that they may know that He has secured for
them the succours and resources of God : " That
they may hear," says Luther, "how I ask it for
them, that they may surely be for the future under
thy protection and guardian care, on which relying
they may feel most constant confidence that they
will not be forsaken, though the whole world with
all devils fiercely rage against them." Experience
adds force to his words, as in all his animated ex-

376 THE PRAYER

position of this chapter; and doubtless for the
Apostles, as for him, such experience assisted in
stead of hindering the fulfilment of the joy.
To this experience in the world the Lord now
adverts, using language which we have already
heard in the Discourse, and founds upon it the re
quest, " I pray not that thou shouldest take them
out of the world, but that thou shouldest keep
them out of the evil one." It would not be good
that they should be taken out of the world ; for
their work is in it, and in it they are to be exer
cised and matured, and to win their crown. Be
sides, all the work of God in the world would be
over, without the presence and action of those who
are not of it, since it is his will to work on men
only by the agency of men. They must not, there
fore, be taken too soon out of the world, either by
death or by such separation as would deprive it of
their influence and example. But their continu
ance in it could not be without danger to them
selves ; therefore for those who are not of the
world there is need to pray, " Keep them from the
evil." Such is the general meaning of the petition, but
literally it is more explicit ; not " from," but " out
of," and (probably) not the evil, but the evil one.
It is not a name, but an epithet, and the case does
not shew whether it is derived from the impersonal
neuter, to irovvpov, or from the personal masculine

in FOR THE DISCIPLES 377
o irovT)p6<;. Naturally, different conclusions are
held, and much has been alleged for each of them.
It seems to me that St. John's own understanding
of the word is reflected from his Epistle, v. 18, 19,
where these thoughts reappear. There it is said of
Him that is begotten of God, and therefore is not
of this world, that " he keepeth himself, and the
evil one toucheth him not : and we know that we
are of God, and the whole world lies in the evil
(one)." The meaning in the first sentence, being
clear, would seem also to rule that of the second,
though Stier holds that it does not. Certainly the
prepositions, (_«) out of and (iv) in, apply more
naturally to a state than to a person ; a state out
of which the believer is kept, and in which the
world is lying: but in the spiritual world person
ality expands, and its character becomes a state in
those whom it possesses or assimilates. The evil,
thus diffused, comes within our cognisance, but in
the Lord's survey of the moral scene the central
power and personal source of evil is before his eye.
Through his whole ministry this living power has
been recognised. Even in the early teaching this
epithet was used in the personal sense in "Then
cometh the evil one and taketh away the word out
of their hearts." Tlie Apostles derived this truth
from their Master, and, in passages too numerous
to cite, have intimated their painful sense of the
power against which they had to contend, to watch,

378 THE PRAYER

and to warn. The prayer that God will keep his
servants, who must encounter the subtle efforts of
the enemy, teaches believers for ever to rely on this
keeping or guarding grace. The echoes of this
word of prayer are heard all along the line of apos
tolic teaching, as from St. Paul in an assurance,
" The Lord is faithful, who shall stablish you and
guard you from the evil one " (2 Thess. iii. 3), or
from St. Peter, in congratulation of those who are
" guarded by the power of God through faith unto
salvation" (1 Pet. i. 5), or by St. Jude in com
mendation " to him who is able to guard you from
falling, and to present you faultless before the
presence of his glory with exceeding joy " (v. 25).
For those who are not of the world and who
are kept in the Name, and kept out of the evil,
there is yet a further petition to be made, one in
which the Lord will link his servants still more
closely with Himself.
" They are not of the world, even as I am not of the world.
Sanctify them in the truth; thy word is truth. As thou
didst send me into the world, even so sent I them into the
world. And for their sakes I sanctify myself, that they
themselves also may be sanctified in truth " (16-19) .
I take the repetition of the first sentence as
giving ground for this petition, as it gave ground
for the last. Only those who are not of the world
can be sanctified in the truth ; for sanctification is
a process founded upon a certain spiritual position,

iii FOR THE DISCIPLES 379
proving its character and developing its capacities ;
and though there are ceremonial and sacramental
and relative sanctifications, these are rather in the
adumbrations or confines of the truth than in
the truth itself. Sanctification is not synonymous
with purification, though inclusive of it. Its dis
tinctive idea is not in its separation from unclean
ness in the world, but in its relation to the holy
God. In the typical scheme, the sanctifications
according to the flesh were to qualify for acts of
approach to God, or communion with God, or ser
vice to God; and so it is in the region of spirit
and truth, in which these relations with God are
realised. This admits of a distinction between
sanctification in general, necessary for all life
towards God, and sanctification for special rela
tions or services ; but if the latter is thought of, it
presupposes the former ; otherwise it could not be
in truth. On this account, we take the prayer,
"Sanctify them in the truth," as proper to the
disciples as ¦ such, and therefore to all other disci
ples ; while, from the context as well as from the
nature of the occasion, we recognise its special
intention for them as Apostles, and therefore for
all who share their mission and ministry.
First, there is a great incitement and strong
assurance in these words of Jesus for all believers,
who know that their sanctification is "the will of
God," and the privilege of their state, and the

380 THE PRAYER

proper fruit of their faith, and the special work of
the Spirit, and that which they are to follow after,
and " without which no man shall see the Lord."
To hear it asked for them at the fountain-head
of prayer is guidance to their own prayers, and
encouragement to their expectations, through all
generations. At the same time, the next sentence
directs their minds to the Word of God as the
power which for this end the Spirit of truth will
use. The Word reveals the truths from which
Christian motives spring, and is the communica
tion of the mind of God to the mind of man, and
tells upon the inner sanctuaries of our being, as
well as on the resulting actions, and thus creates
a sanctification in the truth, which can never be
attained by observances and performances on
which, for this purpose, human nature has been
prone to rely.
But this personal sanctification which the Apos
tles shared with all believers is not all that is in
tended here. Their sanctification is for their mis
sion from their Lord, analogous to his mission from
the Father, and in a certain sense a continuation of
it, and his sanctification for his work is the cause
or condition of their sanctification for theirs. In
such a connexion of thought, sanctification includes
consecration to God in a special office and service.
The great commission is solemnly recited before
God. " As thou sentest me into the world, even

iii FOR THE DISCIPLES 381
so sent I them into the world " — to be in it my
messengers to men, ministers of my word, and
founders of my Church. "As thou sentest me"
stands first, as being the origin of what follows ;
and " I sent " is in the historic tense, the apostolic
mission having been the object of their first
calling, and having been already in some tenta
tive way commenced. Consecration to such a
mission must be by divine appointment and divine
endowment, manifested in self-dedication in will
and deed. So Jesus was sanctified by God and
by Himself; first by God, as He spake of Him
self elsewhere (x. 36), as " Him whom the Father
hath sanctified and sent into the world," i.e.
consecrated by eternal decree, by holy incarna
tion, and by anointing of the Holy Ghost; and
secondly, by his own will and deed, as it is here
said, " I sanctify myself." I do so, that is, in the
constant spirit and successive acts of self-dedica
tion, and now, in acceptance of the cross and
passion, by which, as was once said, "I shall be
perfected" (Luke xiii. 32). The tacit implication
is another instance of that reticence on the subject
which has been maintained through these hours.
But the word " I sanctify myself " will not wait
long for explanation. That came in Gethsemane,
in the final self-surrender, and on Calvary, when,
"through the eternal Spirit, he offered himself,
without spot, to God."

382 THE PRAYER

This consecration of self is said to be "for them,
to the end that they also themselves may be sanc
tified in truth." The great example is persuasive ;
but it would be a meagre interpretation to read
(uirep avTwv) " for them " as limited to example.
The sanctification of Christ is not only the pattern,
it is the fountain of the sanctification of the Church.
All holiness in believers is consciously derived from
the holiness of Christ, as its meritorious cause and
its communicative source : and this is expressed
when we make our own great act of self-consecra
tion and say, " Here we offer and present unto thee,
O Lord, ourselves, our souls and bodies, to be a rea
sonable, holy, and lively sacrifice unto thee " ; for
this is then and there based on the union with
Christ, which has been renewed, and, more par
ticularly, on our participation in the power of his
meritorious cross and passion. So, in respect of
the special consecration here in question, the Apos
tles would ever feel that by the voluntary and
meritorious consecration of Himself, their Lord has
obtained the right and power to communicate a
like spirit to them. For them personally and for
them first, and then for their successors, and for all
who in various measures share in their mission, this
prayer of Jesus asks, through all generations, for
the sanctification of the man and the consecration
of the minister.
Christ, then, is the author of this sanctifying

iii FOR THE DISCIPLES 383
grace by his merits and intercession, and the agent
in it is the Holy Spirit, sent by Him from the
Father. He it is "who sanctifies all the elect
people of God," for the common course and vari
ous service of Christian life ; and it is He who, in
addition, and within this region of action, sanctifies
in a special sense for that high commission which
was first conferred on these Apostles, to be per
petuated while the Church endures. This prayer
of Christ has joined together the sending and the
sanctifying; and evermore, mission and consecra
tion go together for those who are "separated to
the Gospel of God." The Holy Ghost is the con-
secrator; and so St. Paul speaks to the elders at
Miletus of "the flock in the which the Holy Ghost
has made you bishops to feed the Church of God" ;
and so the ordaining act is still accompanied by
the words, " Receive the Holy Ghost for the office
and work of a priest in the Church of God, now
committed unto thee by the imposition of our
hands." This receiving must be active as well as
passive : passive perhaps for the office, for that is
simply given ; but active for the work, for that is to
be done. With the solemn consent and the answer
ing faith, which are proper to a great intention, is
this gift to be "received," and then put to proof
through all the work in which that intention is to
be fulfilled. Otherwise, the sanctifying power,
which is pledged to faith and prayer and labour,

384 THE PRAYER

may lie dormant, and the manifestation of the
Spirit be withdrawn from an unfaithful mission
and a lifeless service. Alas ! alas ! it often is so ;
and we have to deplore a consecration, valid indeed
for the office, but which has not become a sanctifi
cation for the work.

FOR ALL BELIEVERS 385

CHAPTER IV
FOR ALL BELIEVERS
v. 20-24
The intercession has been immediately for the
disciples as commissioned Apostles " sent into the
world." In view of the consequences of that mis
sion the Prayer now expands and ascends. It
expands to include those who will believe through
their word, and in its larger intention passes even
beyond these to the effect upon the world. It
ascends into the highest region of result, where
the consequences of the mission are seen in (what
we may call) their mystic realisation, in spiritual
unity, imparted glory, and final presence with the
Lord. " Neither for these only do I pray ; but for them also that
believe on me through their word; that they may all be
one ; even as thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be in us ; that the world may believe that
thou didst send me. And' the glory which thou hast given
unto me I have given unto them, that they may be one,
even as we are one; I in them, and thou in me, that they
may be perfected into one ; that the world may know that
z

386 THE PRAYER

thou didst send me, and lovedst them even as thou lovedst
me : Father, that which thou hast given me ; I will that
where I am they also may be with me; that they may
behold my glory which thou' hast given me: for thou
lovedst me before the foundation of the world" (20-24).

Section 1
20-23
First in this section of the Prayer we observe
the persons for whom it is made: "Not for these
only, but for those believing on me through their
word." The reading followed in the Authorized
Version from the Vulgate (iuo-Tevo-6vTiov), " that
shall believe," was a natural change from the true
reading (irto-Tevov tcov) " that believe," seeing that
these believers were as yet only in the future.
But the present participle contemplates them as
before the eye of the speaker; or rather it takes
no account of time, but is a simple description of
their state — " all those believing in me." These
are the persons for whom this Prayer is made. It
is not for the world or for "them that are with
out." Jesus does not anywhere ask that faith
may be given and that men may believe, but for
those who believe in Him already, without defin
ing the measure and power of their faith. They
are so far attached to Him, and are therefore the
fit objects of his care, and are in the spiritual state

iv FOR ALL BELIEVERS 387
to which these petitions apply. It is a vast and
ever-increasing multitude which rises before the
mind of the speaker, such as only divine foresight
could survey and divine love embrace.
Yet it is connected by spiritual propagation and
descent with the little company which that room
contains. Therefore they stand in the foreground,
as both the present and first believers, and, through
the word which is in them, transmitters of the
faith to others. So it is added " believing on me
through their word." Bishop Westcott observes,
" In the arrangement of the original, by their word
is closely connected with believe, so as to form a
compound idea, which is followed by in me."
This believing is to be through their agency, and
distinctly through their word (Sid tov Xoyov
aiiTwv), expressive of their doctrine as a whole;
" not only," says Godet, " the witness and narra
tion of the facts, but the teaching which attaches
to them, the explanation of the facts in their relig
ious and moral sense ; it includes the matter of
the Epistles, as well as that of the Gospels." It
is the one enduring word; but however long it
endures, it is always their word. The men there
present, "the Apostles whom he had chosen,"
were receivers and transmitters of the word in a
sense in which no other men could ever be so.
The future city must rest at its base upon " twelve
foundations, and in them the names of the twelve

388 THE PRAYER

Apostles of the Lamb." The future history of
the faith depended on the first stage, and the first
stage was theirs. They, genuine and simple char
acters, honest witnesses of what they had seen
and heard, enlightened by the Spirit of promise,
made Jesus Christ known to men as He was
known to them. Other foundation can no man
lay than that is laid, which is Jesus Christ; and
that was so laid at first that no change has passed
over it. Ten years of apostolic teaching within
the bounds of the holy land consolidated the funda
mental knowledge of Christ before the time came
for its expansion in the world ; and so the Twelve
retain a place which is all their own in relation to
the Gospel, to the Church, and to all believers.
"No man," says Stier, "should ever believe in
Christ without the mediation of these first wit
nesses. Even Paul, to whom the Lord Himself
appeared, was first in secret prepared for obe
dience to the heavenly vision, and then was
strengthened in his faith, by the apostolic Church
which was in Christ before him." Indeed, there
is no exception ; no other line of spiritual descent
exists; and when we hear the prayer "for them
also which believe on me through their word,"
we recognise the description of our own case and
know that it is a prayer for us.
For the persons thus described, what is it that
is asked? The brief expression plainly intends

iv FOR ALL BELIEVERS 389
that what has been asked for those present is
now asked for those who will believe through
their word ; namely, that they, too, may be kept
in the name, that they, too, may be kept from
the evil, and that they, too, may be sanctified in
the truth. These are the immediate subjects of
request, and what follows expresses the result
of tlieir fulfilment — "I ask it (iva) to the end
that they may all be one; even as thou, Father,
art in me, and I in thee, that they also may be in
us — that the world may believe that thou hast
sent me." Thus the effects of the fulfilment of
the prayer are indicated in a thrice-repeated "va,
"that," expressive of purpose or consequence;
the first, desiring that they may be one; the
second, that they may be " in us " ; the third, that
the world may believe. These ideas are again pre
sented more fully in the following words : —
" The glory which thou hast given me I have given unto
them ; that they may be one, even as we are one ; I in them,
and thou in me, that they may be perfected into one, that
the world may know that thou didst send me, and lovedst
them, even as thou lovedst me."
The words become more simple as their mean
ing becomes more deep; and exposition fails in
dealing with language which goes further than
human thought can follow, and which is uttered
from a spiritual standpoint beyond our power to
reach. Yet we can distinguish the ideas pre-

390 THE PRAYER

sented to our reflection, and also their progressive
ascent through the preparation towards the final
stage which is reached in the verse following.
The first idea is that of one-ness — " that they
all may be one, expressed in the most significant
manner by the juxtaposition of the words " all one "
(irdvTe<; ev) ; the plural masculine and the neuter
singular, intimating, not the absorption of indi
vidual life or effacement of individual character,
but their comprehension in a higher unity, as
St. Paul argues at large about the many members
which have not the same character, office, or dig
nity, yet are one body in Christ. As scattering,
severing, and dissolution are processes of failure
and death, so gathering, concentration, and unity
are the proper tendencies of life. This tendency
of life is twofold. It not only develops the whole
through the union of the parts, but it develops
the several parts by their union with the whole.
Only as parts of a greater whole do they attain
their own perfection. This is true socially as
well as physically ; indeed, it is conspicuously true
in human society. The man, as Aristotle taught,
is perfected in (the iroXts) the society, the city,
the state, in which his higher capacities are brought
into action and his whole being matured. That
which is true of the natural society is true also
of the spiritual society of which Jesus Christ is
the author and the head. But true as it is of the

iv FOR ALL BELIEVERS 391
visible Church, the thought of Christ in this
supreme hour passes through the external system
into the union of spirits which is to be created
within it, through living relations with Himself;
a union to be completed only in that one-ness of
state and life which will constitute the Church of
the elect, figuratively described as the Bride and
the City of God. " Come hither (it is said), and
I will shew thee the Bride, the wife of the Lamb.
And he shewed me the holy city Jerusalem, com
ing down out of heaven from God" (Rev; xxi. 9,
10). In that community at last Christ's people,
so much divided and shrouded from each other on
earth, will be " perfected into one."
The one-ness, then, here expressed, lies not
merely in agreement of doctrine, or even the bond
of love, though these are incidents of it, but in
something deeper. The one-ness is that of the
members of Christ with each other, as a conse
quence of their union with Him, according to that
mutual inherence, which in the Discourse had
been represented under the emblem of the Vine,
and had been there impressed, in the charge and
promise, "Abide in me, and I in you." This
union is here exalted by a correspondence with
the mutual indwelling of the Father in the Son
and the Son in the Father. " That they all may
be one, even as thou, Father, art in me and I in
thee, that they also may be in us " ; and again,

392 THE PRAYER

" That they may be one, even as we are one ; I in
them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected
into one." The divine union here expressed is not,
as the ancient expositors mostly took it, that of
the essential unity in the eternal Godhead (though
this lies behind as the basis of the mediatorial
economy), but that of the indwelling of the
Father in Christ incarnate and in his person as
Mediator. Thus only will the comparison hold.1
" As thou, Father, art in me, and I in thee, that
they also may be in us " ; and the word " thou in
me, and I in them " then bears a like character of
indwelling in both cases. Throughout the Apos
tolic Epistles this indwelling of Christ in the
believer lies as a deep foundation truth beneath
all the experiences and phenomena of Christian
life. " Know ye not that Jesus Christ is in yon,
except ye be rejected ? " — " Christ liveth in me "
— "Christ in you the hope of glory" — "Your life
is hid with Christ in God" — these and many like
sayings shew that the indwelling which this Prayer
affirms was realised in the highest faith and con
sciousness of the Church. And this union with
1 " Tenendum est, quoties unum se cum Patre esse in hoc
capite pronuntiat Christus, sermonem non haberi simpliciter de
divina ejus essentia, sed unum vocari in persona Mediatoris, et
quatenus caput nostrum est.
' ' Unde etiam colligimus, nos unum cum Christo esse, non
quia suam in nos substantiam transfundat, sed quia Spiritus
sui virtute nobiscum vitam suam et quicquid accepit a Patre
bonorum communicet." — Calvin, in loc.

iv FOR ALL BELIEVERS 393
the Mediator in whom the Father dwells is conse
quently an indwelling in God. " We know," says
St. John in his last words (1 John v. 20), " that
the Son of God is come, and has given us an
understanding that we know him that is true, and
we are in him that is true, in his Son Jesus Christ."
The mutual inherence between Christ and his
members which in the Discourse had been im
pressed on the disciples from the side of human
will and duty is thus in the Prayer reaffirmed
from the side of divine gift and grace.
For the consummation of the state which Jesus
asks for his people, He also mentions a condition
which He has Himself bestowed. " The glory
which thou gavest me I have given unto them,
that they may be one even as we are one, I in
them, and thou in me, that they may be perfected
into one." What, then, is this "glory" which
tends to perfection of unity and perfection of
state? Various are the leading ideas which com
mentators have adopted as answers to that ques
tion.1 It seems to me that Calvin has struck into
1 1 cite only those which I have at hand.
Chrysostom (thinking mainly of the Apostles). — " The glory
of the signs and of the doctrine and of unity of spirit, opotf/vxla,
greater than signs."
Augustin. — "The glory of immortality which human na
ture was to receive in Him " — not yet attained — but the past
tenses used, "propter immobilitatem prsedestinationis."
Luther. — " The glory which Christ has and gives is the
same of which He had said, ' That they all may be one as thou,

394 THE PRAYER

the right track in speaking of the glory as that
of the restoration of human nature into the image
and likeness of God ; only that should be under
stood, not merely as restoration from the fallen
state, but as a consummation of union with God
and likeness to God attained in Christ, beyond
what the original capacities of our nature, if it
had not fallen, would have been equal to attain.
Was not this the glory given to Christ incar-
Father, art in me, and I in thee,' " identifying the glory with
the unity.
Galvin. — "This blessedness, that in us is repaired and
formed afresh the image of God, destroyed by sin. Christ is
not only as Eternal Word the image of God ; but in the human
nature which He has in common with us has inwrought the
effigy of the Father's glory, that He might transfigure his
members into it."
A Lapide. — " Understand the glory of the Divine Sonship ;
for Christ has this, as God by nature, and as man by the
hypostatical union, and this He gives to the holy faithful to
have, not by nature, but by adoption."
Bengel. — Sonship. " The glory of the Only-begotten shining
out through the Sons of God."
Stier. — "The being one is itself and alone the glory, already
given in its principle, — one and the same with that glory which
was to be beheld in the future, and then fully enjoyed."
Qodet. — "The love which the Father has to Him, and which
He communicates to his own — a glorious unity in the Divine
love." Meyer .. — " The heavenly glory, 'given,' i.e. assigned and
assured." Luthardt now adopts the same, having formerly interpreted
it, " Of the ethical glory of grace and truth."
Westcott. — " The perfect apprehension of the Father as
fulfilling his work of love — in another point of sight, the reve
lation of the divine in man, realised in and through Christ."

iv FOR ALL BELIEVERS 395
nate ; that He should restore and raise the human
nature which He had taken, removing its disquali
fications by redemption, and realising in his own
person the perfection of divine union and like
ness? It had been given Him to do so on earth,
as discovered when "he dwelt among us (and
men beheld his glory, glory as of the only-begot
ten from the Father) full of grace and truth "
(1-14). It is now given Him to convey this
glorified humanity into the world above, where,
all conditions fulfilled, and all veils removed, it
will shine forth in its eternal splendour.
This glory given to Him is the same which He
also gives to his own, raising them through their
union with Himself into union with God, and
through likeness to Himself into the likeness of
God, according to their measure of attainment.
This is what St. Paul describes as a new creation
in Christ Jesus, a creation "after the image of
God in righteousness and holiness of truth " ; and
a being "renewed in knowledge after the image
of him that created " us ; and it is what St. Peter
calls a "partaking in the divine nature." This
restoration and exaltation of nature is founded on
justification, " Whom he called, them he also justi
fied: and whom he justified, them he also glorified"
(Rom. viii. 30). It is a glory susceptible of de
grees and advances, as it is said, " reflecting as in
a mirror the glory of the Lord, we are transformed

396 THE PRAYER

into the same image from glory to glory even as
from the Lord, the Spirit" (Cor. iii. 18). Fur
thermore, as in the person of Jesus, so also in his
people, the same glory received under the partial
concealments of earth and flesh, will be revealed
at his coming: "Then shall the righteous shine
forth as the sun in the kingdom of their Father."
Finally this explanation of "the glory" given to
Christ and given by Him suits well with the result
of "being perfected into one"; for what unity
can be so consummate as one which consists in a
common participation of the manifested likeness
of God? Section 2
v. 23
But the thought of Christ does not terminate
in this result. It passes on into a wider sphere.
"That the world may believe that thou didst
send me," and again, " That the world may know
that thou didst send me, and lovedst them even
as thou lovedst me." So He speaks who had
just said, "I pray not for the world"; nor does
He pray for it directly now, but for the Church,
that it may be such as shall produce this effect
upon the world. When will that be ? Certainly
there is a discovery in store which will terminate
all ignorance and unbelief. "Behold he cometh
with the clouds, and every eye shall see him, and

iv FOR ALL BELIEVERS 397
they which pierced him ; and all the tribes of the
earth shall mourn over him. Even so, Amen "
(Rev. i. 7). Some expositors read the words of
the Prayer in the light of that day, as Calvin, who
thinks that the Evangelist uses " believe " in an
improper sense of a reprobate world confounded
by the coming of the Lord; or as Godet, who
speaks of the forced submission of rebels. They
allege a revealed truth; but we do not read it
here. Not in this sense is Jesus accustomed to
use the words "believe " and "know." Nor could
this result be spoken of as the effect of the action
of the Church. Neither does this prospect suit the
tone of holy love and strong desire which we hear
throughout the Prayer. Truly this is the voice
of Him whom " the Father sent to be the Saviour
of the world." The world is here regarded, as
often elsewhere, in the general aspect of human
life, antecedently to any final decision of its state,
full of the possibilities of change that may be
wrought, and the potentialities of faith that may
be realised, the world that is said to be loved and
redeemed, the world into which the disciples are
sent to testify and the Spirit to convict or per
suade. So Jesus thought of the world, and so his
servants must think of it. The spiritual Church
must ever regard the world, whether within Chris
tendom or beyond it, with the attraction and desire
which belong to kindred according to the flesh,

398 . THE PRAYER

to the sense of common needs and capacities, and
to the faith in a common redemption. Therefore
we read this word of Jesus as asking for his
Church a perpetual missionary spirit, which shall
tell upon the world in love and labour, as a region
from which its ranks must be recruited, its enlarge
ment obtained, and over which, in whatever de
gree it may be possible, Christian influence must
spread. Thanks be unto Thee, O Saviour of the world,
that in thy final prayer for thine own, Thou didst
not leave them contracted and self-centred, but
enlarged in heart by generous impulses and benefi
cent aims and the healthful sense of a never-ceasing
duty !
As the second form of petition (v. 22) has in
comparison with the first a fuller expression both
of the endowment of the Church and of the effect
on the world, the Lord would seem to have in view
two stages, or at least two measures, of attain
ment and success. Perhaps there are periods of
Christian history yet to come which will supply
the explanation. But we understand clearly that
only the true life of Christ in the Church will
ensure its true success in the world, and that this
will be largely in proportion to the impression of
its unity. The conviction said to be produced
is not only of the divine mission of Christ, but
of the divine love resting on believers. Of this

iv FOR ALL BELIEVERS 399
effect many illustrations might be offered, for
great is the power for conviction which breathes
forth from an atmosphere of love. The expression
here is recalled (Rev. iii. 9), where it is promised
to the Church of Philadelphia, " Behold, I will
make (some) of the synagogue of Satan to come
and worship before thy feet, and to know that I
have loved thee." These are humbled and con
vinced penitents from among the bitter opponents
of the truth; and from time to time many like
submissions have occurred. For the still rebel
lious world another kind of conviction is in store
in the day of " destruction from the presence of
the Lord, when he shall come to be glorified in
his saints, and to be marvelled at in them that
believe " (2 Thess. i. 20).
Not in the way of exposition, but in recognition
of inevitable thoughts, some additional observations
are required. The prayer, it may be said, has
not been fulfilled. Who can hear " that they all
may be one," without remembering " our unhappy
divisions " ; or, " that the world may believe,"
without thinking of unconverted millions ? These
are facts to be recognised and considered in rela
tion to these desires of the Lord.
It must be observed (1) that the prayer is not
a prophecy; (2) that it supposes the free action
of the human will ; (3) that its urgent language
implies the knowledge of subjective tendencies

400 THE PRAYER

working against its fulfilment. It is true, also,
that the unity explicitly asked is not that of the
Church as a society, but the spiritual unity of
believers within it, " that they may be one in us " ;
and that is a reality in the sight of the Lord, who
"knoweth them that are his," and will become a
fact in the final stage of their history. But mean
time this undiscovered, unexpressed, and adjourned
unity cannot fulfil the prayer. The unity of the
visible Church is involved, as being the institution
of Christ Himself, in which the life of his people
is to be generated, matured, and expressed, an in
stitution now originated in the commission of the
very men who are listening to the Prayer.
In Scripture this unity is prominent as repre
sented by one Temple and House of the living
God, the pillar and ground of the truth ; one body,
compact and knit together; one body as well as
one Spirit, in which there are to be " no divisions,"
in which men are not only "with one mind,"
but "with one mouth to glorify God," in which
those who "have been baptised into Christ have
put on Christ " ; so that " there is neither Greek
nor Jew, there is neither bond nor free, there is
neither male nor female, for all are one in Christ
Jesus." Certainly this visible unity of the Church was
one great element in its conquering power. There
was something unaccountable and attractive in a

iv FOR ALL BELIEVERS 401
society which silently appeared here, there, and
everywhere, throughout the empire and beyond it;
which, without central authority or administrative
system, or written code, or obvious bonds of union,
was yet one and the same. Alike in Rome and
provincial towns, in Africa and Britain, in Spain
and Pontus, in the most distant and diverse
localities, it was still not many churches, but one,
" increasing with the increase of God." This unity
told upon the world, as is presupposed in the
language of the Prayer. We turn from that
spectacle to the Church as it is. How do we see
it now? Large masses of Christendom detached
from one another, the effect of a usurpation which
enforced as terms of communion unjustifiable
claims weighted with grave corruptions of the
truth ; and then, as a further consequence, a self-
willed spirit of separatism, working on to an ever-
increasing disintegration ; conflicting interests and
rivalries within the Christian nations, and com
plicated embarrassments to the missionary work
among the heathen. The relation of the two
desires, "that they may be one," and "that the
world may believe," is illustrated in our sight by
the very opposite experience.
For the present, practical duty seems to lie
(1) in adhering to the principle of unity on its
primitive lines as against both the tendencies
which have wrought to destroy it ; (2) in cultiva-
2 B

402 THE PRAYER

tion of the temper of forbearance, sympathy, and
love, and a living sense of the higher unity in
Christ ; (3) in seeking and welcoming communion
where it can be had, with those in any part of the
great Christian family in whom we recognise the
confession of the common faith and the spirit of
the common Lord ; and lastly, in watchful prayer
for visible and manifest reunion which, it may
be through trials and sifting processes, we have
reason to expect at last.
" O God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only
Saviour, the Prince of Peace ; Give us grace seriously to lay
to heart the great danger we are in by our unhappy divisions.
Take away all hatred and prejudice, and whatsoever else may
hinder us from godly union and concord : that as there is
but one Body, and one Spirit, and one hope of our calling,
one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of us
all, so we may henceforth be all of one heart, and of one soul,
united in one holy bond of truth and peace, of faith and
charity, and may with one mind and one mouth glorify thee,
through Jesus Christ our Lord." Amen. — (Accession Ser
vice.)

Section 3
v. 24
The Prayer for the Church has been moving
onwards through continuance in the Name, pres
ervation from the evil, sanctification in the truth,
unity in the Spirit, conquests in the world ; and

rv FOR ALL BELIEVERS 403
now, by a sudden ascent, it passes from the present
to the future, from earth to heaven.
"Father (as for), that which thou hast given me, I will
that where I am, they also may be with me : that they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me ; for thou lovedst
me before the foundation of the world " (v. 24).
The Speaker's voice has changed. It takes a
tone of greater certainty and majesty, as if He had
entered the heaven to which He lifts his eyes.
His thoughts have passed from the region of the
contingent and the stage of conditions and prepa
rations. He sees that which has been given Him
as entirely and finally his own, his people end
ing their course on earth, and ready for their
destiny in heaven. The language changes with
the changed position, and " Father, I will," takes
the place of "I pray for them." Here, as before
(in v. 2), the people of his possession are first
spoken of in their totality, " that which thou hast
given me," then in their personality as beholders
of his glory. In the twofold character of collec
tive and individual life, the perfect state is found.
Its foundation lies in the gift of God. Those who
come to Him are given of the Father, and in his
sight they are still the same when He takes them
into glory. In the blessedness now claimed for
them there are two elements, both consisting in
their relation to their Lord, and forming the con
summation of connexion with Him : 1. " That

404 THE PRAYER

where I am they also may be with me." 2. " That
they may behold my glory."
Companionship and life together in a common
home are spoken of as the desire of his soul. It
is a "joy that is set before Him," as well as hap
piness for those who are received. Already we
have seen how that thought dwelt on the mind of
Jesus, for it was the first to occur in the opening of
the Discourse. "I come again," He had said, "and
receive you to myself, that where I am, there ye
may be also." It is the first promise and the last ;
then addressed to men, now sealed before God.
How sure was it then made to the disciples ! How
sure is it still for ourselves !
Nor should it escape observation that this recur
rence of the same promise and in like words,
creating a correspondence of the end with the
beginning, imparts unity and completeness to all
that has intervened. It is one note of the latent
method which has ruled the course of these com
munications. But the promise is enlarged. At first it was
only of reception and companionship in the
Father's house. It is now augmented and illu
minated by a vision of glory : " That they may
behold my glory which thou hast given me; for
thou lovedst me before the foundation of the
world." This is the glory with which the human
nature of Christ is invested by manifested con-

iv FOR ALL BELIEVERS 405
junction with his Divinity. In the days of his
flesh that conjunction with the Godhead was
veiled from view, but was felt in the glory of grace
and truth and also in significant works. It is
manifested in heaven by a glory for which words
and ideas fail us. As communicated to the human
nature, it is bestowed ("the glory that thou hast
given me "), but in itself it belongs to the essence
of Godhead, and is called "my glory," and is
described before (v. 5) as that " which I had with
thee before the world was," and here again is
thrown back into eternity by the added clause,
"For thou lovedst me before the foundation of
the world." The clause does not merely amplify
— it explains ; for without it the previous words
might have left the single thought of bestowal
and origination in time. As it is, the world, its
foundation, and all that has happened in it, and
all that follows and will follow from what has
happened, are seen on the background of the
Divine infinity and eternity. Thus the last words
of prayer fitly crown the holy communications of
these momentous hours.
In taking to ourselves the joy of this promise,
a question arises as to when and where we are to
expect the fulfilment of the blessed hope. Is it
at the time of departure and in the disembodied
state? St. Paul taught, and the first Christians
thought, that to depart was to be with Christ, and

406 THE PRAYER

to be absent from the body was to be present with
the Lord. That is enough for us to know of that
unexplained stage of existence, and we too may
say with full assurance, " It is far better." Yet is
it only an interval, and a life not yet made perfect,
on the margin of the world which is and the world
which is to be. Saints at rest as well as saints on
earth are " looking for that blessed hope and the
glorious appearing of our Lord and Saviour Jesus
Christ." Then will they be ever with the Lord in
quite another sense than that in which they have
been conscious of his presence before. Having
" the perfect consummation and bliss both in body
and soul in his eternal and everlasting glory."
Then will be fulfilled the promise that " where I
am, they also shall be with me, and behold my
glory which thou hast given me." And that be
holding will be a partaking, and will complete the
change which the beholding by faith had begun.
So in words of serene certainty the Evangelist in
his Epistle interprets and appropriates the promise
which he has here recorded, " Beloved, now are
we children of God, and it is not yet made mani
fest what we shall be, but we know that if he
shall be made manifest, we shall be like him ; for
we shall see him as he is " (1 John iii. 2). Who
will not answer Amen ?
" As for me, I will behold thy presence in righteousness :
I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness."
Ps. xvii. 15.

THE SEQUEL 407

CHAPTER V
THE SEQUEL
v. 25, 26
The last request has been made, and the Prayer
is done. Yet something remains to be said ; for
the thoughts of the Speaker must now revert to
the actual situation, and the men beside Him,
whom He leaves as his agents in it. In words
compressed, pregnant, and precise, He lays the
case before his Father.
"O righteous Father, the world knew thee not, but I
knew thee ; and these knew that thou didst send me : and
I made known to them thy name, and will make it known,
that the love wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them,
and I in them."
In the address "Righteous Father," we recog
nise the introductory word of a new departure of
thought. As in v. 11, " Holy Father" opened the
appeal for the holiness of the disciples and the
Church; so here "Righteous Father" is an invoca
tion of the character in which the world ought to
have known God, in which it had not known Him,

408 THE PRAYER

yea, had refused to know Him. Righteousness,
justice, the moral attributes, which by the endow
ment of natural conscience man is qualified to
recognise, these should have been to the world the
fundamental idea of God, one that would have
placed mankind fn the relation of duty, and would
have prepared for further knowledge. It had
been in respect of this very attribute, and indeed
on account of it, that the world " did not like to
retain God in its knowledge," as St. Paul sets
forth in the first chapter of his Epistle to the
Romans. In abrupt words, evincing strong emo
tion, the Lord sums up this condition of mankind.1
Personal observation and painful experience of
the fact accentuate his words.
But for what purpose does He thus appeal to
the righteous Father? Some expositors, as Augus
tin and Calvin and Luther, find in the epithet
"righteous" an intimation of the justice which
consigns to wrath those that know not God, illus
trating by contrast the happiness assigned to be
lievers, in agreement with the account of "the
1 Literally, " 0 righteous Father — and the world knew thee
not," etc. The Revisers omit this first " and," taking no
notice of its presence. Certainly it is hard to render. By
some expositors (as Meyer) it is taken as meaning "and yet "
— as if it intended "righteous thou art, and yet the world knew
thee not " ; by others (as Westcott) it is ranged with the fol
lowing "and" as so co-ordinating the opposite states of the
world and the disciples; but this gives too parenthetic a char
acter to the fundamental words, "But I have known thee."

THE SEQUEL 409

righteous judgment of God" given by St. Paul
in 2 Thess. i. 5-9. But these ideas' are not ex
pressed in this brief statement, and we have no
right to read them into it ; indeed, they would be
out of place. This sequel to the Prayer does not
diverge to anticipate judgment or deal with men's
deserts. It must be taken as in line with previous
thoughts. Those have been occupied with the
mission of Christ to the world, the knowledge of
God which is life eternal, and the spiritual history
of those who receive it ; and the occasion is that
of leaving the men there present to be witnesses
and messengers of this knowledge to the world.
This is the case now trustingly laid before the
righteous Father.
The world has not known Him. It presents
a scene of spiritual alienation and gloom. But
there was in the world One who had known Him,
who could say in the midst of those who most
counted that they knew God, " Ye say that he is
your God ; and ye have not known him, but I
know him" (viii. 55). He had come to give this
knowledge to those who had it not ; and this He
will do first by his own ministry, and after that,
by the ministry of those who first receive Him.
The chosen men are there present, listening to his
words as men listen to that which is spoken of
themselves. " These," He says, " have believed
that thou didst send me." That belief was the

410 THE PRAYER

turning-point, and qualified them for the fuller
revelations. ' Therefore He continues, "I have
made known to them thy name." But what has
been done hitherto is not all ; " And I will make
it known." There is then more to be told; as
had been already said in the Discourse (xvi. 12,
13) ; and between these two stages of instruction
the teaching of this evening holds the central
place. In the second stage, as well as in the first,
the Teacher is the Lord Himself. In his past
manifestation He has declared the Father's name,
and now in these closing words with a more ex
plicit revelation. But the Resurrection comes,
and the day of Pentecost. Then will the disci
ples be raised to a higher level of intelligence, and
the full disclosures will be made. By the com
munications of the forty days and by an illumina
tion of the Spirit, sudden and yet progressive, the
Lord will lead his own into the perfect knowledge
of the Name. What has been spoken this evening
has been accompanied by the promise, "In that
day ye shall know that I am in the Father, and
ye in me, and I in you." Then will come "the
full assurance of understanding to know the mys
tery of God, even Christ in whom are hid all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge" (Col. ii. 2).
And it will be more than knowledge. It will
have the result here described, "That the love
wherewith thou lovedst me may be in them." Very

THE SEQUEL 411

specially and definitely for the disciples whom He
sends ir.to the world does Jesus desire and antici
pate this .xperience of love. They will need this
inward support, and they shall have it. The love
which dwelt in Him for his mission shall dwell in
them for theirs.
Yet is there a further word, the last to be
spoken now. So short it is, that it sounds almost
abrupt, certainly unlike to human perorations.
Yet this word, " And I in them," is the most apt
and eloquent of conclusions. It leaves on the
mind, as the last thought of all, that of the living
personal relation of Christ with his servants, most
inward, not only with them (Matt, xxviii. 20), but
in them; still enduring after his departure from
sight, as the power of the apostolic work, and as the
secret of the Christian life. It is the fullest of all
promises, and we ask no more. For the disciples
whom He leaves, and for all who believe through
their word, not only do his name and memory, his
word and sacraments, his grace and gifts remain,
but He Himself lives on, present and acting still.
AMEN AND AMEN.

Discourse and Prayer are ended, and we ask,
With what effect? We need not ask that ques
tion with regard to their effects as written records,
as part, a most sacred part, of Holy Scripture, for

412 THE PRAYER chaA
we, as readers, have felt their effects, and so'nave
all the Christian generations. But perhaps some
fifty years elapsed before they were w^iffe11 in
the form in which we read them, as jSart of the
Gospel which, towards the close of life, St. John
bequeathed to the Church. Was it only then that
the effect of these words commenced? What
office did they fulfil in that half/century which,
on this supposition, elapsed between this speaking
and that writing ? Could these great and fruitful
ideas, or rather, I will say, tjiis majestic scheme
of truth, lie dormant and, inoperative in the
minds of the hearers? Could these outpourings
of divine affection pass from them,
" Like the lost ventures of the heart
Which send no answer back again " ?
We are sure the answer came, and that there
was response to these teachings, first, in the minds
of the hearers, and then in the mind of the
churches which they formed. Eleven chosen wit
nesses thus solemnly instructed, to the end that
they might become instructors, did not let these
precious deposits of truth evaporate from their
minds, nor leave them to only one of their number,
to be drawn forth from the stores of memory in
his latest age. It is true that we have no informa
tion. These men were not writers. The treatise
which follows the Gospel is a history of the acts

THE SEQUEL 413

of Apostles. It belongs to the outward life and
the progress of the Word in the world, and the
discourses given are generally to those who are
not yet Christians. For us, during more than
twenty years, the voices within the house of God
are nearly silent. We hear the testimonies that
issue from it, so clear and strong in all the essen
tials of the faith ; but we do not learn how these
doctrines were appropriated in experience and
developed in reflection ; we do not dwell in the
interior atmosphere of thought. But the time
comes when we enter the house with the apostolic
letters, and learn the language which is under
stood within. St. Paul's special illumination and
dialectic power bring fresh precision and expansion
to the truths which he treats, but essentially they
are truths which he shares with those whom he
instructs, and are the same which constitute the
teaching of the later Epistles of St. Peter and St.
John. It is impossible to disconnect the Chris
tian consciousness, as we thus know it, from the
divine communications which have so distinctly
prepared it. Advancing through the course of
thought along which they have led us, we have
noted, from time to time, the responsive voices
which return to us from the apostolic writings.
It would be an easy task, but a long one, to shew
this correspondence fully. I speak not of the
broad facts of the Faith, but of those apprehen-

414 THE PRAYER

sions and applications of them which constitute
the cast and habit of Christian thought. There,
as here, the faith in God the Father and in Jesus
Christ our Lord appears in the same distinction,
the same unity, and the same perfect harmony.
The self-revelations of Christ made here are fully
reflected there. The relations of believers with
Christ, and in Christ with God, are there as here
presented as the sources and supplies of Christian
life. The work of the Spirit as Teacher and Para
clete promised in these discourses is everywhere
in those writings asserted or assumed as a present
and experienced fact. Besides these deeper mys
teries, — the principles of life and fruitfulness, of
love and obedience, of peace and victory in Christ,
are all there what they are here; and so it is,
also, with the last things, — the hope of his
coming, and of being where He is, and of the
beatific vision of his glory.
But with all this similarity there is a conspic
uous difference. We see that in the apostolic
teaching and the coexistent mind bf the Church
another line of doctrine has entered into com
bination with these truths. It was a needful and
natural combination ; for the doctrine of the cross,
with all that it implies and achieves, is a pre
requisite for the due apprehension and assimila
tion of all that has been taught. That doctrine
lies as close to those which have been here de-

THE SEQUEL 415

livered as the Passion itself follows on their
delivery. Rather, they are historically incorpo'-
rated into the Passion, and united with the events
which must become fact before they can become
doctrine. After the traitor has been sent forth
with, " What thou art doing, do quickly," and in
the suppressed consciousness of all that is pre
paring and of all that will ensue, the teaching of
this evening has been given.1
Then, without hesitation or delay, "when
Jesus had spoken these words, he went forth with
his disciples over the brook Kedron, where was
a garden, into the which he entered with his
disciples." The Agony, the Betrayal, Trial, Condemnation,
Crucifixion, Death, Resurrection, follow. The
crisis of human history is reached, and the re
demption of the world is wrought.
Comparing the commendatory Prayer which we
have here attended with the Prayer in Gethsemane,
and the tranquil converse to which we have
listened with the terrible scenes which follow, we

1 It was with a true feeling of relation between the several
parts of the Gospel records that in the Revised Lectionary
these five chapters were appointed to be read as the Second
Lessons on the days in Holy Week between Palm Sunday and
Good Friday. The Church thus passes directly from the Upper
Room to Gethsemane and Calvary: the discourses are incor
porated with the Passion ; and the Central Teaching of Jesus
Christ with the central fact of his history.

416 THE PRAYER

feel the' marvel and the majesty of that self-
suppression which has secured these hours of
sacred calm for the words of foreseeing love, and
again we own the truth of the opening words : —
" When Jesus knew that his hour was come that he should
depart out of this world unto the Father, having loved his
own, which were in the world,
HE LOVED THEM UNTO THE END."

NEW THEOLOGICAL, WORKS.
THE SOTERIOLOGY OF
THE NEW TESTAMENT.

WILLIAM PORCHER DuBOSE, M.A., S.T.D.,
Professor of Exegesis in the University ofthe South.
121110. $1.50.
This work is a re-examination of the Christian doctrine of
Salvation in the light of the facts of human nature and of the
teaching of the New Testament.
In its general scope it deals with (1) the nature and mean
ing of " Salvation," (2) the work of Salvation as actually
accomplished for humanity by the Son of Man, and (3) the
means of Salvation in the positive institutions of the Gospel.

. . . The Church owes a deep debt of gratitude to Dr. DuBose
for bringing out into clear light the New Testament meaning of the
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It is a great satisfaction to take up a thoroughly-made book like
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Independent. The work is scholarly, clear, and able. — Boston Traveller.

MACMILLAN & CO.,
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Just Published. i2mo. $1.75.

Rev. Professor H. E. Ryle.
The Canon of the Old Testament. An Essay on the
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" This volume is remarkable in two ways. It is written by one of the
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NEW THEOLOGICAL BOOK'S. 3
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